Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation achieved a milestone more than a decade ago.
It was announced Friday that after 16 years, the End the Backlog campaign has successfully advanced rape kit reform legislation in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Maine has become the latest state to enact at least one of the campaign’s six reform pillars, marking a national breakthrough in efforts to eliminate the backlog of untested rape kits and help prevent future backlogs.
According to End the Backlog, the six pillars of rape kit reform include mandating submission and testing of all backlogged kits, requiring testing of all new kits, creating statewide rape kit tracking systems, conducting statewide inventories, ensuring survivors have access to the status of their kits, and securing dedicated funding to support submission, testing, and tracing.
Hargitay – Best known for playing Captain Olivia Benson Law & Order: Special Victims Unit She founded the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004 after her work on the NBC series deepened her awareness of the trauma survivors often carry. The organization’s mission is to transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, support survivor healing, and end violence. Central to this mission is the End the Backlog Campaign, which seeks to eliminate hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits stored across the United States so that survivors can pursue justice and closure.
“Today represents a watershed moment not only for the state of Maine, but for every survivor who wondered if her rape kit had been forgotten, if her truth had been left on the shelf, and if she had any hope of finding justice,” Hargitay said in a statement. Hollywood Reporter. “This didn’t happen overnight. It happened because survivors spoke their truth. It happened because advocates refused to let urgency turn into complacency. It happened because Rep. Geiger, Senator Bennet, and Senator Dawson, along with so many other inspiring legislators, stood up for a cause that required their perseverance and years of dedicated work. It happened because our community insisted that every survivor deserves accountability, transparency, and dignity in handling their tools.”
“This moment is a promise that the system can be transformed into a source of light, not darkness,” Hargitay concluded. “To the survivors who have carried this cause in their hearts: This achievement belongs to you. We are far from finished, but how glorious it is to take this moment to honor how far we have come together.”
