I will say that right now, women are afraid to report. They know they may well be punished for coming forward as a victim of violence. They know they may be accused of being unwilling to facilitate a relationship with the other parent, which is not at all the case when somebody is protective and fearful for their own safety or the safety of their child in an abuse case.
Hopefully, when that education is implemented and the culture has shifted, women or any victim of violence will feel comfortable in coming forward that there is a view to protecting them and ensuring they are safe, that they are not going to be the next statistic, and that their child is going to be safe and not the next statistic in the newspaper.
Right now, I can tell you that across the country, survivors are very fearful. They are turning to systems to protect them, but they are being shut down. They are being punished for disclosures of abuse. This bill is a good starting step toward changing that.