The National Organization for Women and a prominent organization of African-American clergy came out in favour of the bill, joining sexual abuse survivors at a rally in Albany on April 21.

“Abuse against children is violence,” Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the 34,000-member National Black Church Initiative, at an Albany news conference. “I don’t represent a god who condones violence. It is a shame we have to fight against the [Catholic] church in this.”

Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, distributed a letter on April 22 asking Agudath Israel to reconsider, and suggesting possible compromises to make the one-year window more amenable, such as a cap on abuse victims’ financial awards or limits on plaintiffs’ attorneys contingency fees.

“Achieving justice for the victims need not come about as a result of the financial demise of our greatest institutions,” Hikind wrote. ”But neither can we forsake those who have already sacrificed far too much.”