HARRISBURG (PA)
Erie Times-News/GoErie.com [Erie PA]
June 9, 2025
By Bethany Rogers
- The Pennsylvania House approved two measures to allow survivors of child sexual abuse to sue their abusers and involved institutions, even after the statute of limitations has expired.
- One measure is a simple change to state law, while the other is a proposed constitutional amendment requiring a future statewide vote.
- Previous attempts to amend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse survivors have failed due to bureaucratic errors and partisan disagreements.
- Survivors and advocates have long sought this change, arguing the current laws unfairly deny them justice.
Pennsylvania lawmakers have revived a proposal that would enable survivors of decades-old child sexual abuse to sue the perpetrators, a chance victims say the state’s statute of limitations has unfairly denied them.
A pair of measures approved by the House of Representatives June 9 would open a two-year window allowing these victims to file legal claims against abusers and the institutions that covered up their crimes.
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It’s an opportunity long sought by those who suffered abuse from Catholic priests in Pennsylvania. Survivors often take decades to talk about the trauma they experienced, advocates say, and the church’s complicity in covering up abuse cases came to light only after many victims had run out of time to sue.
“This bill is not about any one institution or any one individual,” said Rep. Nathan Davidson, D-Dauphin, who sponsored the legislation. “This is about a group of survivors who have been denied access to our court system, and we have the opportunity to finally get it right.”
But the effort is still far from the finish line.
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Both proposals would first have to clear the Senate, and the one that would create a litigation window through a simple change to state law is less likely to gain approval there, Davidson said.
The measure with a higher likelihood of success is a proposed constitutional amendment that lawmakers would have to revisit again in the next legislative session. The issue would then go up for a statewide vote as a question on the ballot.
Abuse survivors in the commonwealth have spent years fighting for a window like the one state officials are now contemplating.
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State lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment on the statute of limitations several years ago, and the question was supposed to come before voters in the 2021 primary. But state elections officials failed to advertise it in newspapers as legally required, a clerical error that kept the issue off the ballot that year and forced lawmakers to start the process all over again.
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A subsequent push hit partisan roadblocks, as the GOP lawmakers who control the state Senate refused to advance the legislation unless they could lump in a ballot measure on voter identification.
Neither chamber budged, and ultimately, the resolution failed to pass before the end of the 2023-2024 legislative session.
Bethany Rodgers is a USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania investigative journalist.