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H1746 • 2025

An Act enhancing protections for sexual violence survivors

An Act enhancing protections for sexual violence survivors

Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
Higgins, Natalie M.
Last action
2026-03-26
Official status
Accompanied a study order, see H5281 (under House Rule 27)
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

An Act enhancing protections for sexual violence survivors

An Act enhancing protections for sexual violence survivors By Representatives Higgins of Leominster and Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No.

What This Bill Does

  • An Act enhancing protections for sexual violence survivors By Representatives Higgins of Leominster and Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No.
  • 1746) of Natalie M.
  • Higgins, Tricia Farley-Bouvier and others relative to enhancing protections for sexual violence survivors.
  • The Judiciary.

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

  1. 2026-03-26 House

    Accompanied a study order, see H5281 (under House Rule 27)

  2. 2025-10-20 Joint

    Hearing scheduled for 06/17/2025 from 01:00 PM-05:00 PM in A-2

  3. 2025-06-11 Joint

    Hearing scheduled for 06/17/2025 from 01:00 PM-05:00 PM in A-2

  4. 2025-02-27 House

    Referred to the committee on The Judiciary

  5. 2025-02-27 Senate

    Senate concurred

  6. House

    Reported by committee to Clerk’s Office for processing, will accompany a study order

Official Summary Text

An Act enhancing protections for sexual violence survivors
By Representatives Higgins of Leominster and Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 1746) of Natalie M. Higgins, Tricia Farley-Bouvier and others relative to enhancing protections for sexual violence survivors. The Judiciary.

Current Bill Text

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Bill H.1746

SECTION 1. Section 97B1/2 of chapter 41 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section (b)(2) and replacing it with:-

(2) Submit new sexual assault evidence kits to the crime laboratory within the department of the state police or the police department of a municipality that operates a crime laboratory and has a population of more than 150,000, in the case of a sexual assault alleged to have taken place in that municipality, within 7 business days of taking possession. A sexual violence survivor/ victim who has not yet filed a report with law enforcement may elect their sexual assault evidence kit to be tested. Alternatively, a survivor/victim may elect their kit to be safely stored by law enforcement in a manner that preserves evidence for the duration of the statute of limitations for all sexual assault and rape cases.

SECTION 2. Section 97B1/2 of chapter 41 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding subsection (e):-

(e) A survivor of sexual assault has the right not to have the results of the rape kit used to prosecute the survivor/victim. Law enforcement agencies and their agents shall use survivor/victim DNA samples or profiles only for purposes directly related to the incident being investigated. No law enforcement agency or agent thereof may compare any of these survivor/victim samples or profiles with DNA samples or profiles that do not relate to the incident being investigated. No law enforcement agency or agent thereof may include any of these survivor/victim DNA profiles in any database that allows these samples to be compared to or matched with profiles derived from DNA evidence obtained from crime scenes.

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