Mariska Hargitay Marks 'Watershed' Milestone in Rape Kit Reform After 16 Years of 'Relentless' Advocacy

Alex RossFri, May 1, 2026 at 9:04 PM UTC

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Mariska Hargitay attends the NBCUniversal Emmy Luncheon at Avra Beverly Hills Estiatorio on April 22, 2026 in Beverly Hills, CaliforniaCredit: Amy Sussman/Getty -

Mariska Hargitay's Joyful Heart Foundation has successfully achieved rape kit reform in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico

The foundation's End the Backlog initiative focuses on six pillars of reform, including testing backlogged kits and creating statewide tracking systems

Hargitay launched the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004 to support survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse

Mariska Hargitay and the Joyful Heart Foundation are celebrating a major achievement.

After 16 years, the organization's End the Backlog initiative — which was created to eliminate the backlog of untested rape kits and prevent a backlog from occurring again — successfully achieved reform in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

As of Friday, May 1, Maine was the final state to have enacted at least one pillar of reform as outlined by the initiative.

“Today marks a watershed moment not only for the State of Maine, but 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," Hargitay, 62, says in a statement to PEOPLE.

"After 16 years of relentless, survivor-driven advocacy, the End the Backlog campaign has achieved a milestone: With the passage of unprecedented legislation in Maine, all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico now have some form of rape kit reform in place," she adds.

According to End the Backlog, the six key pillars of rape kit reform are implementing an annual statewide inventory of kits, mandating the submission and testing of all backlogged kits, mandating the testing of all new kits, creating and using a statewide kit tracking system, implementing mechanisms for survivors to easily find out about the status of their kits and, finally, allocating appropriate funding to submit, test and track kits.

The initiative was motivated in part by the statistic that every 68 seconds, someone is sexually assaulted in the United States. A rape kit then contains any evidence collected by a doctor or nurse if a survivor chooses to undergo a forensic medical examination.

End the Backlog.org also emphasizes that if a survivor then chooses to report the rape to police, "the evidence in the rape kit can be one very powerful tool to bring a perpetrator to justice."

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"This did not happen overnight," says Hargitay. "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."

Adds Hargitay: "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 honor how far we have come together.”

Hargitay first trained as a rape crisis counselor in 2004, the same year she launched the Joyful Heart Foundation to support survivors of domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault. When she learned in 2009 about the number of untested rape kits in America, she prioritized the foundation’s End the Backlog initiative.

Hargitay would later join forces with Michigan prosecutor and activist Kym Worthy to take on the cause, and together they documented the process of four women in Cleveland, Detroit and Los Angeles having their kits tested after years of being ignored in the Emmy-winning 2018 HBO documentary I Am Evidence.

In 2024, Hargitay was honored with the Hope Award for Depression Advocacy, and in her speech she explained that creating the foundation "was my response to reading the letters that I received from survivors when I started on SVU 852 years ago. Joyful Heart is my response to learning the statistics of sexual violence and having them rock me back on my heels and just being slack-jawed that everybody wasn't talking about these statistics and talking about these issues because they're so pervasive and it is an epidemic in our country, in our world."

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is currently in it's 27th season, and the long-running series will be returning for season 28 in the fall.

Visit joyfulheartfoundation.org and endthebacklog.org to learn more.

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