The Highs and the Lows

Iowa Senate Passes SF 2489 to Extend Child Sexual Abuse Legal Deadlines

On Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed SF 2489, lifting the state’s statute of limitations on child sexual abuse so that Iowa victims can take part in a national legal settlement stemming from abuses within the Boy Scouts. A prior version of this legislation, passed in 2024, provided an exemption to the state’s statute of limitations laws through December 2026. SF 2489 gives victims more time, extending the exemption through the end of the legal proceedings. But why is an exemption necessary?

Iowa currently has some of the most restrictive statute of limitations laws in the country for child sexual abuse. Victims have only one year after they turn 18 to file a civil lawsuit. This requires kids to pursue justice for crimes committed against them at a time when they may not be psychologically or emotionally capable of it, when they may not have the support system to help them.

Efforts to Eliminate the Statute of Limitations in Iowa

So, during debate on a separate bill dealing with statute of limitations laws, SF 512, Sen. Janet Petersen filed an amendment that would have completely eliminated the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse to pursue civil legal action. The exemption in SF 2489 would no longer be necessary because child sexual abuse survivors wouldn’t have a time limit on when they could seek justice. But despite fitting within the same code section and addressing the relevant topic, the amendment was ruled out of order by the Senate president, and we never got a chance to vote on it.

You take the wins when you can get them around here – and SF 2489 certainly is a win – but I think we’d all love to get to a point where the legislative highs aren’t mirrored so often with lows.