LANSING, Mich. (Nov. 29, 2022) — Sen. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) today applauded the Senate’s passage of bipartisan legislation to prevent sexual assault by fixing loopholes in Michigan law that enabled Larry Nassar and others to prey on children and young women for decades.
Senate Bills 223-227, sponsored by Sen. Chang, as well as Sens. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor), Ruth Johnson (R-Holly), Dan Lauwers (R-Brockway), and Lana Theis (R-Brighton), aim to protect survivors, increase accountability, and prevent sexual assault.
“One in 9 girls under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault at the hands of an adult. We must do all we can to prevent future sexual misconduct from happening and protect survivors,” Sen. Chang said. “The bills in this package originated in 2018 and were informed by hundreds of pages of documents, many weeks of committee hearings, and consultation with survivors, experts, community organizations, advocacy groups, educators, parents, and more to ensure we were approaching the issue of sexual assault from every angle, sealing cracks in the law that may allow future predators to get away with such a heinous crime.”
The legislation would:
- Require school districts to disseminate age-appropriate educational material, developed by the Michigan Department of Education, related to sexual assault and harassment and available resources in the community;
- Prohibit sexual contact and penetration under pretext of medical treatment and provide penalties;
- Modify sentencing guidelines for sexual contact or sexual penetration under the pretext of medical treatment;
- Create guidelines for when a licensee or registrant could and could not perform a medical treatment on a minor that involved vaginal or anal penetration unless it was within the licensee’s or registrant’s practice, and require another licensee and the minor’s parents, or guardians, to give consent; and,
- Modify sentencing guidelines.
“I am proud to stand alongside colleagues in both chambers of the state Legislature to craft fair and just policy to support survivors and protect our children for years to come. When we first introduced these bills, several people reached out to me to let me know that if our bills had become law years ago, maybe they could have been able to stop the sexual abuse that they or their family member had experienced as a child. Change on this issue is long overdue and there is more work yet to be done,” Sen. Chang added. “We will work hard to ensure passage of this bicameral, bipartisan bill package all the way to the governor’s desk.”
The bills now head to the House for consideration.
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