‘Unbelievable’ Star Kaitlyn Dever Advocates For Debbie Smith Act

After portraying 18-year-old sexual assault survivor Marie Adler in Netflix’s new true crime limited series, Unbelievable, actress Kaitlyn Dever is now advocating for other survivors in Washington, D.C. She recently spoke with members of Congress to urge them to pass the Debbie Smith Act, a bill designed to get through the backlog of hundreds of thousands of unanalyzed rape kits.

The bill expires on September 30, and Kaitlyn just revealed on Instagram that she went to Capitol Hill to try to help it pass. “What a day! Such a privilege to get to spread awareness about sexual assault survivors, speak with members of Congress, and help pass #TheDebbieSmithAct at The Capitol. #eliminatethebacklog,” she captioned several photos of herself with members of Congress.

Kaitlyn also made a plea in an Instagram video she shared yesterday. “Why won’t congress pass the #DebbieSmithAct? 200,000 rape kits are waiting to be tested. @speakerpelosi @leaderhoyer@repjerrynadler @repkarenbass call 202-225-4965
#EliminateTheBackLog,” she wrote.

In the video, Kaitlyn further explained the bill and the high stakes for sexual assault survivors. “The Debbie Smith Act is the bill that provides the funding to eliminate rape kit backlog,” she said. “Hundreds of thousands of rape kits are still waiting to be tested and processed and that’s hundreds of thousands of rape victims waiting for justice.” She then urged people to call Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. “If it does not get passed, it would be extremely devastating,” Kaitlyn said. “Please do whatever you can to help.”

Fellow celebrities, including The Act star Joey King have lent their support on social media. “You’re such a boss,” Joey wrote in the comments of one of Kaitlyn’s Instagram posts.

The Debbie Smith Act was first passed in 2004, per The Washington Post, and in the 15 years since, nearly 200,000 DNA matches have been made by a national database. But the funding is set to expire, and Congress will need to reauthorize it before September 30 in order for the program to continue. Though the Senate unanimously reauthorized the Debbie Smith Act in May and sent it to the House, nothing has happened since then.

Based on a true story, Unbelievable has recently helped bring the injustice too often experienced by sexual assault survivors to the forefront of popular culture. In the series, Kaitlyn’s character Marie told police she was threatened with a knife, tied up, blindfolded, and raped in her apartment but, after multiple interrogations and disbelief from authorities, she recanted her story.

It wasn’t until years later, when detectives in another state were investigating multiple other sexual assaults and found Marie’s photo in a collecting belonging to a serial rapist that the young woman was vindicated.

Recently, the show’s producers, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), and CBS Studios organized a screening of Unbelievable for members of Congress in hopes that it would inspire them to act.