Huffington Post

It's no news that "Law & Order: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay fights for survivors of sexual assault in real life. The Joyful Heart Foundation, which she founded to help put an end to sexual and domestic violence, has recently helped the city of Detroit obtain funds to process a backlog of nearly 11,000 untested rape kits.

While we are absolutely, truly delighted that President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Act last week, it's also clear that the legislation never should have been allowed to lapse in the first place. The fact that it was even used as a political chess piece is a disturbing indication of the low priority that sexual and domestic violence have in this country as a national issue.

The office of Vice President Joe Biden tweeted a photo of Biden posing with "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" actress Mariska Hargitay on Wednesday.

Sunday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the launch of this year's16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. In the time it takes me to write this paragraph, 26 people--given our statistics probably all women--will be assaulted by an intimate partner in the U.S. In the roughly 48 hours between my writing and posting, at least six women in the US and hundreds if not thousands around the world will be killed by violent spouses.