For more than a decade, Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay and her nonprofit Joyful Heart Foundation have been campaigning to “End the Backlog” of hundreds of thousands of untested or unsubmitted rape kits sitting in storage across America.
We’re talking an estimated 400,000 kits.
Over the years, Mariska and her foundation have worked with experts to call for six pillars of reform including tracking systems and statewide inventories so more kits can be analysed, offenders prosecuted and survivors supported.
Fast forward to 2026, and the state of Maine has just become the final state to enact rape kit reform – yes, ALL 50 U.S. states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico have now implemented at least one of the six pillars to end the backlog.
Mariska says this is “for every survivor who has asked if their rape kit was forgotten, if their truth was abandoned on a shelf, if they have hope of finding justice.”
In her statement, she adds:
“This did not happen overnight. It happened because survivors spoke their truth. It happened because advocates refused to let urgency become complacency. It happened because Rep. Geiger, Sen. Bennett, and Sen. Duson, along with many other inspired legislators, championed a cause that demanded their persistence and years of dedicated work. And it happened because our community insisted that every survivor deserves accountability, transparency, and dignity in the handling of their kit.”
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She continues, “This moment is a promise that the system can and will be transformed into a source of light, not darkness. To the survivors who have carried this cause in their hearts: this milestone belongs to you. We are far from done, but how glorious to take this moment to honour how far we have come together.”
And Mariska is right. The job is far from done.
According to the foundation, there’s an estimated 100,000 kits still to be discovered and analysed, and every 68 seconds, someone is sexually assaulted in the United States.
It’s all a seemingly insurmountable task, and yet Mariska and her team are creating change.
“To me, the backlog is one of the clearest and most shocking demonstrations of how we regard these crimes in our society,” Mariska says on the foundation’s website.
“Testing rape kits sends a fundamental and crucial message to victims of sexual violence: you matter. What happened matters. Your case matters. For that reason, The Joyful Heart Foundation, which I founded in 2004, has made ending the rape kit backlog our #1 advocacy priority.”
Mariska started Joyful Hearts whilst researching her role as Captain (formerly Detective) Olivia Benson on SVU. She was also receiving letters from viewers and fans about their own experiences of sexual and domestic violence.
“I remember my breath going out of me when the first letter came, and I’ve gotten thousands like it since then,” she says.
“When people are abused and assaulted, it is like the doors to their souls slam shut. The goal of Joyful Heart is to let the light, and the life, back in – to banish the darkness and let the healing begin.”
(Feature Image Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
