WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said Thursday joined scores of advocates and survivors of domestic abuse to mark the 30th anniversary of the landmark Violence Against Women Act, a law he wrote and championed as a US senator because he wanted to “change the culture of America” around this touchy issue.
Biden said that back then “society often looked away” and that violence against women was not treated as a crime in many places. He said a national hotline was not available to those suffering abuse and few police departments with what are known now as special victim units.
“My goal was to do more than change the law,” he said at a White House event marking Friday’s 30th anniversary of the law. He said his goal was “to change the culture of America” by providing more protection and support for survivors and accountability for perpetrators.
“I believed the only way we could change the culture was by shining a light on that culture, and speaking its name,” he said.
Biden wrote and championed the legislation as a US senator. It was the first comprehensive federal law that addressed violence against women and sought to provide support for survivors and justice. It sought to shift the national narrative around domestic violence at the time; that it was a private matter best left alone.
The White House said that between 1993 and 2022, annual rates of domestic violence dropped by 67 percent and the rate of rapes and sexual assaults declined by 56 percent, according to FBI statistics. A national domestic violence hotline has fielded more than 7 million calls since 1996, Biden said.
“It matters. It saves lives,” he said Thursday.

During a hearing on domestic violence in 1990, Biden told the committee that “for too long, we have ignored the right of women to be free from the fear of attack based on their gender. For too long, we have kept silent about the obvious.”
He spent years advocating for the law, moved by horrible stories of domestic violence. Congress passed it in 1994 with bipartisan support. Then-President Bill Clinton signed it into law on Sept. 13, 1994.
“The Violence Against Women Act is my proudest legislative achievement,” Biden said at the event on the White House lawn. It was attended by hundreds of people, including survivors of domestic violence, advocates, administration officials and members of Congress.
The president also spoke about continued efforts to strengthen the law, including announcing that the Justice Department was awarding more than $690 million in grants, along with efforts to serve orders of protection electronically and strategies to address online gender-based violence, a growing problem that law enforcement struggles to combat.

Federal agencies also sent reminders on housing rights for survivors of domestic violence who live in federally funded homes, including that they can request emergency housing transfers.
“Today, officers, prosecutors, judges, families, and society at large understand what should have always been clear: these crimes cannot be cast aside as somehow distinct or private,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Instead, we recognize that they are among the most serious crimes that our society faces and that we must continue to improve access to justice, safety, and services for survivors.”
Jen Klein, the White House gender policy adviser, said the measures are meant to keep pushing efforts to help survivors of domestic violence.
“While we have made tremendous progress since VAWA was signed into law in 1994, we also know that much work remains in the fight to prevent and end gender-based violence,” she said.
The law was reaffirmed in 2022, but it almost didn’t happen. The sticking point was a provision in the last proposal, passed by the House in April 2019, that would have prohibited persons previously convicted of misdemeanor stalking from possessing firearms.
Under current federal law, those convicted of domestic abuse can lose their guns if they are currently or formerly married to their victim, live with the victim, have a child together or are a victim’s parent or guardian. But the law doesn’t apply to stalkers and current or former dating partners. Advocates have long referred to it as the “boyfriend loophole.”
Expanding the restrictions drew fierce opposition from the National Rifle Association and Republicans in Congress, creating an impasse. Democrats backed down and did not include the provision.
That provision was later addressed in Biden’s bipartisan gun safety legislation signed by Congress in 2022, and now prohibits people convicted of misdemeanor crimes in dating relationships from purchasing or possessing firearms for at least five years.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio: The father of an Ohio boy killed last year when a Haitian immigrant driver hit a school bus is imploring Donald Trump and other politicians to stop invoking his son’s name in the debate about immigration.
Nathan Clark spoke Tuesday at a Springfield City Council hearing — the same day that the former president and Vice President Kamala Harris debated, and the city in Ohio exploded into the national conversation when Trump repeated false claims demonizing Haitian immigrants there, saying they eat pets.
“This needs to stop now,” Nathan Clark said. “They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members. However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio. I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.”
Eleven-year-old Aiden Clark was killed in August last year when a minivan driven by Hermanio Joseph veered into a school bus carrying Aiden and other students. Aiden died and nearly two dozen others were hurt.
In May, a Clark County jury deliberated for just an hour before convicting Joseph of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide. He was sentenced to between nine and 13 1/2 years in prison. A motion to stay his sentence pending an appeal was denied in July.

Trump’s campaign and others, including his running mate, JD Vance, have cited Aiden’s death in online posts. On Monday, the Trump campaign posted “REMEMBER: 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed on his way to school by a Haitian migrant that Kamala Harris let into the country in Springfield, Ohio.” On Tuesday, Vance posted: “Do you know what’s confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here.”
Clark’s death got wrapped up in a swirl of false rumors on Monday about Haitian immigrants eating pets. Then Tuesday, Trump repeated the statements, which local officials and police have said are not supported by evidence.
Clark declined to comment further on Thursday. A message seeking a response to Clark’s statement was left with representatives of Trump.
Vance’s spokesperson said in a statement that Harris owed an apology over her border policies and added that the Clark family was in Vance’s prayers.
Clark also mentioned Republican senate candidate Bernie Moreno in his speech. Moreno campaign spokesperson Reagan McCarthy said it was Harris and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown who should apologize and criticized their handling of the border.
Four government buildings and two schools were evacuated in the city Thursday after a bomb threat was emailed to multiple city agencies and media outlets, Springfield police chief Allison Elliott said. City officials said the buildings included Springfield City Hall, a local office of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, a licensing bureau and a driver’s exam station. The city is working with the FBI to determine the source of the threat. Officials didn’t specify whether the threats had to do with the discussions about immigration.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday condemned the conspiracies regarding Haitians as “hate speech.” She deferred to the local police department regarding any threats to the Springfield community, but she described the situation as “an attempt to tear apart communities” and an “insult to all of us as Americans.”
Pastors from Springfield churches gathered Thursday to address the effects of the false rumors.
Vile Dorsainvil, the executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, attended the event and said it was necessary to bring peace to the community.
People have to understand each other, he said.
Many Haitians have come to the US to flee poverty and violence. They have embraced President Joe Biden’s new and expanded legal pathways to enter, and they have shunned illegal crossings, accounting for only 92 border arrests out of more than 56,000 in July, according to the latest data available.
The Biden administration recently announced an estimated 300,000 Haitians could remain in the country at least through February 2026, with eligibility for work authorization, under a law called Temporary Protected Status. The goal is to spare people from being deported to countries in turmoil.
On Tuesday, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said he would send law enforcement and millions of dollars in health care resources to the city of Springfield, which has faced a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. DeWine said some 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020 under the Temporary Protected Status program, and he urged the federal government to do more to help affected communities.
Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also drew attention to the crisis on Monday when he directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending “an unlimited number of migrants to Ohio communities.”