Heartland abuse survivors still fighting for the right to sue
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Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse brought their national campaign to the Kansas City metro last month, putting a spotlight on childhood sexual abuse survivors' fight for more time to sue.
The big picture: Advocates say most survivors don't disclose childhood sexual abuse until decades later. The average age is just over 50, according to the think tank Child USA, long after the civil deadlines in Kansas and Missouri.
Zoom in: Dani Bensky and Sharlene Rochard, who say Epstein abused them as teenagers, met state Sen. Cindy Holscher, who led the four-year push for Kansas' 2023 law.
- They also met with Lesa Patterson-Kinsey, a Kansan who survived childhood sexual abuse and lobbied for the law.
- Rochard tells Axios the pair offered to help Kansas survivors with legislation. "We're also learning about ... what kind of legislation that you need help with in your cities, so that we can help."
Catch up quick: Before 2023, Kansas gave survivors until age 21 to sue their abusers and gave prosecutors as little as five years to file charges.
- Survivors showed up at the Statehouse every week that session until lawmakers passed a compromise: Prosecutors can now charge child sex abuse at any time, and survivors can sue until 31.
- The compromise left out a "lookback window," a set period when survivors whose deadlines had already passed could file civil claims.
- A 2025 bill, HB 2093, would have pushed the lawsuit cutoff to 55. It died in committee this spring.
Zoom out: Bensky and Rochard are touring for Virginia's Law, a Democratic bill that would eliminate the statute of limitations for certain federal sex abuse lawsuits and open a one-year window for expired claims, a provision Kansas' 2023 law doesn't include.
- Patterson-Kinsey says the visit is "momentum that we need."
Across the state line, Missouri lifted its deadline for prosecuting childhood sexual abuse in 2018, but survivors generally have until age 31 to sue their abusers and age 26 to sue institutions such as schools and churches.
- Its constitution bars the revival of expired claims, so lawmakers can't add a lookback window without voters' approval.
- A ballot measure to allow a lookback window died in May, and a bill to push the lawsuit deadline to age 41 stalled in the Senate over an insurance lobbying fight.
The other side: Insurers, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and tort reform groups opposed the ballot measure. Opponents testified reviving old claims invites due process challenges and upends insurance contracts.
- In Kansas, the group that lobbies for cities warned in 2023 that longer deadlines could leave taxpayers paying damages "simply because a bad actor chose to commit their crime on city property."
What's next: Both legislatures reconvene in January. Missouri advocates plan to try again, while no Kansas lawmaker has filed a bill to extend the deadline since HB 2093 died.
- Holscher, now the Democratic nominee for governor, did not answer Axios' question about whether she'd push to lift the age cap. Republican nominee Ty Masterson's campaign declined to comment beyond his 2023 vote for the law.