Missouri is a safe harbor for predators and it’s time to put an end to protecting them, supporters of a measure to eliminate the statute of limitations on child sex abuse lawsuits told a state Senate committee Wednesday.

“This is an epidemic, and we need to respond as lawmakers and as leaders to protect our children in the future,” said Kathryn Robb, national director of the Children’s Justice Campaign at Enough Abuse.

Proponents, including survivors of sexual abuse and their advocates — some from the International House of Prayer-Kansas City and Branson-based Kanakuk Kamps — testified in support of SB 1140 at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.

Some came from around the country — Minnesota, Texas and Tennessee — to share their stories and urge for the bill’s passage.

Sponsored by Sen. Brad Hudson, a Cape Fair Republican, the bill calls for abolishing the statute of limitations in civil cases involving child sexual abuse. Under current Missouri law, survivors can only sue their abuser up to age 31 or within three years of discovering that their injury was caused by child sexual abuse. And they can only file a claim against an institution that facilitated the abuse up to age 26.

Hudson told senators that the legislation “could have a profound impact on the lives of victims of childhood sexual abuse.”

‘We are siding with abusers’

“By assigning an arbitrary statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, we are siding with abusers and perpetrators over survivors and making Missouri a sanctuary state for pedophiles,” Hudson said. “This must end.”

Passage of the bill would also require an amendment to the Missouri Constitution, SJR 93, that, if approved by voters, would give the Legislature the authority to enact a time-limited revival period that would enable child sexual abuse survivors to file lawsuits for older cases that are currently blocked by the statute of limitations.

“Revival periods do not guarantee outcomes,” Hudson said. “They simply allow courts to evaluate claims based on evidence and existing legal standards. These laws promote accountability, help identify hidden perpetrators and institutional failures and strengthen protections for future generations.”

After the hearing, senators passed SJR out of committee on a 5-0 vote. They didn’t take action on SB 1140.

Proponents of the measures cited research that indicates it takes an average of 20 years for child sex abuse survivors to first disclose their abuse. Many don’t disclose it until their 50s and 60s, they said, and a large number of survivors never disclose the abuse.

But opponents, including the insurance industry, said eliminating the statute of limitations could make it difficult to set rates and hurt some businesses by making insurance cost-prohibitive.

Similar proposals have been introduced in the Missouri Legislature in the previous three years but have failed to advance.

Last March, survivors of sexual abuse at IHOPKC and Kanakuk Kamps joined forces in support of Hudson’s statute of limitations proposal and a measure called “Trey’s Law,” which prohibited the use of non-disclosure agreements in civil settlements involving child sexual abuse. The measure was named after Trey Carlock, who died by suicide in 2019 after being silenced by an NDA in a settlement against Kanakuk Ministries.

That legislation was passed and signed into law by Gov. Mike Kehoe in June. But the statute of limitations measure, which the committee overwhelmingly supported, never made it to the Senate floor.

Elizabeth Phillips, the sister of Trey Carlock, told senators Wednesday that 33 states and U.S. territories have taken action to address statute of limitations concerns.

“And I think if Missouri decides that they want to stand with kids, there are a lot of victims who would be very grateful for the opportunity to tell their stories in Missouri civil courts,” she said. “Until this legislature takes action, children will continue being harmed there.”

Measures have ‘unintended consequences,’ opponents say

Hampton Williams, speaking for the Missouri Insurance Coalition, opposed both measures, saying they had “unintended consequences.”

He said the bill would allow a survivor to not only bring a lawsuit at any time against an alleged perpetrator but also against an entity that is alleged to have caused or allowed the abuse to occur. That could include employers, nonprofits, public or private schools, churches, day cares and others, he said.

“I think that there’s a general understanding that for individuals or even institutions that are actively involved in concealing or taking a proactive step in facilitating abuse, that that is a different concern than expanding a general liability to all actors, or even good actors,” he said.

He said the bill “casts a wider net, and unfortunately, will have negative effects on particularly the insurance markets for day cares and all kinds of other businesses that might be exposed to the cost of this implementation.”

Rich AuBuchon, with the Missouri Civil Justice Reform Coalition, said the goal has never been to protect the abusers.

“Our goal that we have always had, is to ensure that day cares, to ensure that providers of services such as church camps, summer camps, will be able to afford insurance and have a product so that parents can help their kids go to school, after-school care, et cetera,” he said. “We’re trying to protect the good employers.”

In her testimony, Robb said statute of limitations reform educates the public about the problem of one in eight children being sexually assaulted before they turn 18.

“It also shifts the cost away from the victims, their families and, quite frankly, the taxpayers of Missouri, because they are bearing the brunt of this, the financial burden of this,” she said. “But most importantly, what statute of limitations reform does is it exposes hidden sexual predators, and it also forces institutions to have better practices, better procedures, better training, better reporting, so we can protect children.”

Testimony about IHOPKC

Gracia Macks, executive director of the Rise and Reclaim Advocacy Group, a nonprofit that helps survivors of abuse within religious institutions, said she was testifying on behalf of survivors from the International House of Prayer-Kansas City. Mike Bickle, founder of the 24/7 global prayer ministry, was accused in 2023 of sexually abusing multiple women.

“Today you are hearing SB 1140 and SJR 93,” she said. “These two must move together, or Missouri will keep doing something unconscionable: acknowledging the devastation of childhood sexual abuse, while still protecting the predators and institutions that benefit from silence.”

Passage of the bills, Macks said, “would do what years of statements, apologies and internal reviews never have: force the truth into daylight.”

“Many people have publicly alleged sexual abuse and misconduct from the leadership of IHOPKC, alongside documented failures of them to intervene, report and protect,” she said, “and yet Missouri law has functioned as the final layer of insulation, ensuring that even when survivors are finally ready to speak, the institution never has to answer.

“The truth is, the pain of trauma has no expiration date. Why should accountability?”

After Macks testified, Sen. Adam Schnelting, a St. Charles Republican, thanked those having “the courage and boldness” to speak out. He said his younger sister had attended IHOPKC.

“I’m just going to say, anybody who thinks about the faith and thinks about Jesus, one of the things that he did was he consistently stood up for the handicapped, the disabled, the sinners, the tax collectors, the outcasts,” Schnelting said.

“He always stood for the vulnerable. And it takes a special kind of evil for a person to take the sincerity and the purity of Christ and to hide behind it and to use it as a shield to harm the innocent and the weak.”

Death penalty for abusers?

Committee chairman Nick Schroer had strong words to add.

“I don’t think this bill goes far enough,” said Schroer, a Defiance Republican. “I know Senator (Mike) Moon has a bill dealing with the death penalty for child sex offenders, and I think that should be ushered through.

“I hope that gets into our committee so we can fast-track that. I think, for these types of individuals that Senator Schnelting was saying hide behind the word of God and masquerade as some sort of spiritual leader to prey upon kids, they need to be dealt with. And I think Senator Moon’s bill is appropriate for that.”

Among others testifying in support of the measures was Logan Yandell, of Nashville, who was sexually abused at Kanakuk Kamps. He said passage of SJR 93 “is absolutely essential” and would put the decision in the hands of Missouri voters.

“SJR 93 does not create liability, it does not mandate retroactive lawsuits, and it does not decide guilt or innocence,” Yandell said. “What it does is remove a constitutional barrier that currently prevents any consideration at all.”

In his closing remarks, Hudson, who is a pastor, quoted Ephesians 5:11.

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. God’s children are called not only to avoid evil and darkness, but to expose it.”

“I want to thank the members of this committee,” he said. “I want to thank the brave witnesses that we’ve heard today for helping me to fulfill what I believe is not only a duty to my constituents, but a calling for my Creator.”

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