Kaitlyn Hughes | news editor

Taking a deep breathe, Maria Gardner said with an assertive tone that survivors of sexual violence need to be heard — but not at the cost of publicly displaying their most vulnerable moments. Especially not to sway Pennsylvania legislators to pass a state budget that is more than 100 days past the deadline.

Despite this, Gardner stood in front of the City-County Building on Oct. 16 with quivering hands to outline her most vulnerable moment — the day she was assaulted by a stranger next to the Allegheny River on her lunch break.

“I fear that unless lawmakers come face to face with the people hurt by their inaction, they will continue to write survivors off as another line in a spreadsheet,” she said. “Survivors can’t wait.”

Gardner spoke at a news conference held by Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, a non-profit that provides free support, education and advocacy to end sexual violence in Allegheny County. Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect and state Sen. Lindsay Williams, D-Allegheny, also joined in to outline how the state budget impasse is impacting rape crisis centers.

Since the news conference, the state senate approved a state budget on Tuesday, but it must still be approved by the House.

“Pennsylvania’s rape crisis centers are on the brink of collapse,” said Sadie Restivo, executive director at Pittsburgh Action Against Rape. “For more than 100 days, every one of our 47 centers across the commonwealth, including PAAR, have gone without funding.”

Across Pennsylvania, rape crisis centers support more than 27,000 people per year, said Yolanda Edrington, CEO of Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect.

For Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, the lack of funding equates to less staff attending to the 24/7 helplines, fewer advocates in hospitals sitting beside survivors, fewer prevention programs in classrooms that teach children about consent, longer waits for therapy, delayed help for families and lost access for children who have experienced trauma, Restivo said.

Among the many services the organization offers, they partner with universities in the area including Duquesne, to host prevention classes ,and they raise awareness about their facility and services. Restivo said they plan on starting “office hours” at the university to make one of the educators available on campus.

Chief of Duquesne Police Eric Holmes is a member of Pittsburgh Action Against Rape’s board of directors, which he said helps facilitate better communication with victims.

“I joined the board of directors of PAAR because it strengthens the response system, promotes collaboration and helps foster a safer campus community through a commitment to prevention. All in support of victims of sexual violence,” Holmes said.

Pittsburgh Action Against Rape is on a spending and hiring freeze because of the impasse, but their doors remain open to anyone in need.

“Behind every one of these services is a person, often a child, who found the courage to reach out for help,” she said. “When all the calls go unanswered because we’ve been forced to cut staff and hours, that’s not just a funding issue — that’s harm.”

‘Not all of us make it’

With gravel clinging to her skin, Gardner arrived at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in the back of a squad car.

She was alone, 10 weeks pregnant and she had just been assaulted.

Soon after being admitted, an advocate from Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, Adrienne Melillo, appeared at her bedside.

Melillo, who stood by Gardner’s side as she spoke at the news conference, explained every step of the medical, legal and recovery process to her. Melillo told Gardner that she was able to consent or not consent to any part of the process.

“Her advocacy restored my sense of agency, which had been taken from me the moment I encountered my attacker,” Gardner said. “Her presence reminded me that I was no longer on my own.”

When Gardner was dazed, traumatized and pregnant, Melillo was a guiding force.

She explained to Gardner how nurses would protect her pregnancy and coordinated with the district attorney, so Gardner could prepare for the baby’s birth.

Melillo warned Gardner when she would face triggering evidence and stood between Gardner and her assailant as she testified in court.

When the jury reached a verdict that convicted the man that assaulted Gardner, they cried together. Soon after, Melillo read Gardner’s victim impact statement at a sentencing hearing, so she could nurse her newborn daughter at home.

“PAAR gave me a critical resource that many survivors navigating crisis today no longer have,” Gardner said. “I could not have survived this trauma without the help of a rape crisis center … There is a reason we are called survivors. Not all of us make it, and without our state’s rape crisis centers more of us won’t.”

One obstacle after another

The state budget impasse is not the only obstacle facing rape crisis centers in the state, Edrington said.

Over the past five years, there has been no increase in the current funding toward rape crisis, which remains at around $12 million as proposed in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2025-26 budget and the recently approved state Senate budget.

Centers are maxing out credit cards, taking out loans and cutting staff to keep the life-saving services afloat, Edrington said.

“They are past their breaking point to survive,” she said. “Every day this budget remains unfinished, survivors pay the price.”

“Survivors have been placed in the middle of partisan politics, their healing held hostage by gridlock.”

Kaitlyn Hughes can be reached at hughesk10@duq.edu