Rebecca Hoskins

I'm a rape victim who came forward and filed an order of protection against my boyfriend at the time. This is something that I needed to do for my physical safety because even though I had already left him he was still trying to come after me and harm me. While the initial order was granted based on the evidence, it was not continued at the follow up hearing; despite the fact that he denied none of the abuse. When filing for the initial order of protection there was the understanding that there is already a punishment for perjury. People who have made false allegations have had charges brought against them in the past and there is nothing currently in NH law that protects liars. To now say that if I could have been proven to have misremembered something because of the traumatic effect being raped everyday has I could have faced criminal charges is disheartening, dehumanizing, and insulting. There is no reason to make reporting abuse harder for victims other than to protect abusers. It seems that the intention of this bill is to intimidate victims to stay silent. In a time where those in the federal government are trying very hard to protect abusers in power by not following the law to fully release the Epstein files I hate seeing the state that I live following suit. We should be making life harder for abusers, not victims. I urgently oppose this bill.