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The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

The Student Newspaper of DePaul University

The DePaulia

Congress stalls Violence Against Women Act

As night fell on Oak Street Beach, an immigrant woman wearing a flowing blue gown walked among 3,000 candles, each commemorating a victim of domestic violence. One of those candles could have been for her, but she survived her husband’s attacks.

The October “Light Up the Lakefront” event launched Domestic Violence Awareness Month and was sponsored by Between Friends, a Chicago agency that helps women leave abusive relationships.

Domestic violence affects one in four women, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Women ages 20-24 have the greatest risk of non-fatal attacks, and more than three women are murdered by intimate partners every day, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Kathleen Doherty, executive director of Between Friends, stood on the beach and asked the crowd of nearly 200 people, “Does it take dying before we actually start to do something?”

That is a good question to ask legislators.

Congress is holding the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) hostage. The law expired in 2011 and should have been swiftly reauthorized.

However, last spring the Senate and House each approved their own version of the bill, but neither body has made good faith attempts to come together and reconcile the differences, according to Monica McLaughlin, a senior policy specialist at National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV).

VAWA, a landmark piece of legislation passed in 1994, changed the way the legal system and communities respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.

The law combined tough provisions to hold offenders accountable with programs to assist domestic violence victims, according to a White House VAWA fact sheet.

Vice President Biden issued a statement Sept. 13, VAWA’s 18th birthday, and said that domestic violence has dropped 60 percent since VAWA’s passage.

While it is clear that VAWA has improved our nation’s response to intimate partner crime, there are still significant protective gaps that need to be addressed to save lives, said McLaughlin.

The Senate drafted a bill to close those gaps by adding provisions to safeguard the LGBTQ community, immigrant victims and Native America women.

The Senate passed a strong 68-31 bipartisan reauthorization of its VAWA bill, April 26, which also received wide support from domestic violence advocacy groups, victim service agencies and the legal community.

In a move that smacks of farright Republican maneuvering, House Republicans sponsored their own VAWA bill.

It rolled back provisions for gays, immigrants and Native Americans, which angered legislators on both sides of the aisle – and got the President’s attention. On the day before the House VAWA vote, the executive office issued a statement expressing strong opposition and threatening a presidential veto.

Despite the warning, the House VAWA bill passed on May 16 by a narrow margin of 222- 205.

A few days after the House vote, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who helped draft the original VAWA bill, blasted the Republican House version of VAWA in the Hill’s Congress Blog.

“I refuse to support legislation that would protect only some victims of domestic violence and make women less safe than they are under current law,” said Conyers.

“This is not about politics, it’s about good policy,” Conyers said.

It is time for House Republicans to stop taking aim at domestic violence victims, and it is time for all members of Congress to prioritize VAWA’s reauthorization.

“We all have a role to play in ending domestic violence,” said McLaughlin.

“Congress has a role, and their role is to pass a bi-partisan Violence Against Women Act that safely and effectively meets the needs of all victims. And that’s what their constituents have to hold them accountable to.”

Take a moment during Domestic Violence Awareness Month to contact your legislators and demand they pass a VAWA bill that gives equal rights to every victim of domestic violence.

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Domestic Abuse Statistics:

24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner

1 in 5 women have been raped at some point in their life

1 in 4 women have been a victim of severe physical violence

1 in 6 women have experienced stalking victimization during their lifetime

Almost 70 percent of female victims experienced some form of intimate partner violence for the first time before the ageof 25

1 in 7 men have experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner at some point

1 in 19 men have experienced stalking victimization during their lifetime

STATISTICS COURTESY OF CDC 2011 SURVEY

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