(The Center Square) – Domestic violence victims and advocates held a news conference at the state Capitol in Olympia on Thursday, calling on majority party Democrats to schedule hearings on a package of bills aimed at improving protections for abuse victims – mostly women and children – via family court reforms.
Not all abuse is physical, observed Rep. Phil Fortunato, R-Federal Way, sponsor of the bills.
“I will call this a new class of abuse, as a lot of it is psychological abuse,” he said. “There’s no broken bones, there’s no black and blue marks, but the scars are very deep.”
Tina Swithin, author of ” One Mom’s Battle ,” spoke out during the press conference.
“Washington state is high on my radar as a state that is failing survivors of domestic abuse,” she said.
She went on to say, “Parental rights trump child safety, even when there are substantiated findings of abuse, and if the residents of Washington state understood how low the bar has been set when it comes to a parent obtaining custody of a child, I believe they would be locking arms with us in outrage.”