New York Lawmakers Behind Child Victims Act Say It Will "Transform Trauma into Real Action"

Summary: Part 2 of our conversation with two New York state legislators, Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, who helped pass the Child Victims Act. The state law, which went into effect Wednesday, extends the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse and includes a “lookback period,” giving survivors of any age a year to take legal action even if their cases had expired under the old statute of limitations. Hundreds of cases have already been filed. Both Biaggi and Niou are sexual abuse survivors, and they have spoken about the importance of the Child Victims Act in personal terms. “It is a remarkable thing, it is a privilege, to be able to transform trauma into real action that will help … hundreds, if not thousands, of people across the state of New York,” Biaggi says.