South West Illinois News

Illinois state Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) has opposed a Democrat-backed bill that Bryant argued could delay the process of notifying law enforcement of a sexual assault. 

Bryant, who according to the Journal Star was unopposed in the election last June to represent the 58th District, took to social media to speak out against Senate Bill 333.

"Yesterday, Senate Democrats passed Senate Bill 333, which would delay the process of notifying and reporting the sexual assault of survivors 13 years and older to law enforcement," Bryant wrote in a May 12 Facebook post. "On multiple levels, this is simply a bad bill. This legislation enables abusers, endangers local communities, and potentially prevents justice from being served."

In her Facebook post, Sen. Bryant shared a video of her speech on the Senate floor about the bill. In her speech, she provided some examples that point to what she says are flaws in the legislation as written. Following those examples she said, "I explained in committee that this is a very regressive bill. We have worked very hard in the legislature to make sure that those who are being abused (sexually or otherwise) are taken care of. This takes us back 10 steps or more in that process."

Sen. David Koehler (D-Peoria) sponsored the legislation, which was filed on Feb. 2. The bill determines when a medical facility is required to report injuries to law enforcement. Some mandatory reportable injuries include any resulting from a firearm or a criminal offense or any sustained as a victim of a crime except "when it reasonably appears that the person requesting treatment is a sexual assault survivor age 13 or older." 

Under the legislation, if a sexual assault survivor agrees to notify the police, law enforcement must be notified as soon as treatment allows. It also stipulates that if the sexual assault happened somewhere else, the officer taking the report must submit the report to the agency where the offense took place. The legislation also said, "the health care provider must advise the survivor about the options for the timing of the law enforcement notification, ask the survivor if the survivor has been threatened, and offer to connect the survivor with a rape crisis center for safety planning, if appropriate. If a sexual assault survivor does not consent to notification being made as soon as treatment permits, notification to the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction must be delayed until after the sexual assault survivor leaves the outpatient treatment location, but no later than 24 hours after the sexual assault survivor leaves."

After the bill passed the Senate on May 10, Sen. David Koehler issued a statement. In it, Koehler said, “The most important thing we can do for survivors of sexual assault is make them feel safe. Many survivors know who assaulted them personally. By giving survivors the choice of when and how they would like to report their case to the authorities, we are giving them the ability to safely seek justice.”