Trump’s DOJ Cuts Are a Disaster for Sexual Violence Survivors

Indeed, Martina Shabram, executive director of Sexual Assault Support Services, or SASS, in Eugene, Oregon, said: “Certifying in that way would require us to engage in activities that are not in keeping with our values, that are not trauma-informed, that are not survivor-centered.… The entirety of our mission would be unallowable under those requirements.” SASS is one of 39 member programs in the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, a plaintiff in the ongoing cases challenging the funding conditions.

The costs to survivors are already being felt. “We’ve had to scale back some of our programming, especially around health support, counseling, and outreach,” explained Shaniyat Turani, development and program specialist at Asiyah Women’s Center in New York City, an organization that focuses on serving the city’s Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, South Asian population. Trump’s DOJ cancelled a $200,000 grant to Asiyah Women’s Center in its April terminations. “We’re very limited right now with how many new intakes we can take, so survivors who are depending on us for stable shelter and wraparound care now face an even longer wait time, and there are very few options for them,” Turani said.

Organizations such as the Asiyah Women’s Center that focus their services on survivors of color, immigrants, or the LGBTQ+ community will likely find it more difficult to secure federal grants if Trump’s new funding conditions are allowed to stand. Experts and advocates argue that those organizations are vital to a functioning survivor services network because marginalized populations experience sexual violence at disproportionate rates: One in two women of color experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime, while almost half of all transgender people have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. That rate is even higher for trans people of color and disabled trans people.