Rape Crisis Centers Say Federal Funding Disruptions Are Impeding Life-Saving Programs

State-level organizations across the country report that they’re not receiving funding from the CDC’s Rape Prevention and Education Program amid the Trump administration's chaos.

By Kylie Cheung | February 10, 2025 | 12:06pm

Photo: Getty Images Politics

Rape Crisis Centers Say Federal Funding Disruptions Are Impeding Life-Saving Programs

As a legally recognized sexual assailant and serially accused rapist, Donald Trump being reelected was inevitably going to harm abuse victims. Trump’s first acts as president were to nominate several men accused of abuse to key cabinet positions, and reinstate campus policies that further shield sexual assailants from accountability. Now, anti-sexual violence organizations—which have already faced a steadily worsening funding crisis in recent years—report unexplained disruptions of funding amid shakeups from the Trump administration. The disruptions come as unelected billionaire Elon Musk performs his hatchet job of an audit on federal agencies, and the Project 2025-powered Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seems determined to gut the entire government.

On Friday, NPR reported that funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Rape Prevention and Education Program has been delayed without explanation, hampering organizations’ ability to provide life-saving programs to rape and abuse survivors. This funding is disbursed to state health departments, which then allocate it to community anti-sexual violence organizations and rape crisis centers. A new grant cycle was set to begin on February 1, but the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence says that funding hasn’t come. (The organization says Nevada is the only state that hasn’t reported a disruption in funding for its health department’s anti-sexual violence services.)

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Consequently, these organizations are being forced to cut staff and scale back services that domestic violence victims rely on, especially in life-or-death circumstances. The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault told NPR that it anticipates further layoffs and even more constraints on services “the longer that this goes on.” The affected resources could include shelters, hotlines, safety and monitoring programs in schools, child care, and education and outreach programs to victims. Loss of staffing could mean everything from less funding to advertise or disseminate crucial educational information to people experiencing violence, to shelters having to close or cut down on services.

Gender-based violence is endemic across the country; one in four women are victims of domestic violence, and domestic violence is a significant driver of homelessness for these women and their children. In October, Mother Jones reported that federal funding for domestic violence shelters and hotlines across the country has sharply declined over the last several years. This funding comes from the 1984 Victims of Crime Act’s Crime Victims Fund, but amid policy changes at the Justice Department, the fund’s budget plummeted from $6.6 billion in 2017 to $1.39 billion in 2023, and thinning resources “may be death” for victims, one advocate told the outlet.

The economic costs of experiencing gender-based violence are substantial: Per the Justice Department, rape costs victims $127 billion annually; sexual assault-related emergency room visits cost an average of $3,551 per visit, and the lifetime economic cost of rape across all U.S. victims stands at nearly $3.1 trillion. Domestic violence victims may also suffer from financial abuse and economic sabotage from their abusers, and be unable to hold jobs or afford housing for themselves or their children.

Many of these victims will be left with nowhere to turn as shelters and other resources in their communities lose funding, cut staff, and severely limit services. “I am worried this is having a very real-world impact on anti-sexual violence work,” Terri Poore, policy director at the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, told NPR. “Nobody knows what is causing the delay and how long it will be.”