The US Catholic church has poured millions of dollars over the past decade into opposing accountability measures for victims of clergy sex abuse, according to state lobbying disclosures. The lobbying funds have gone toward opposing bills in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland that would extend statutes of limitations for child sex abuse cases or grant temporary civil windows for victims whose opportunities for civil action have already passed. In Pennsylvania, house representative Mark Rozzi, who was abused as a child by a Catholic priest, has led a campaign to extend the age before which child abuse victims can bring on cases. In New York, assemblywoman Margaret Markey is pushing to grant a temporary one-year window for those whose statute of limitations has already expired. Many child sex abuse cases are done gradually, under the guise of love or sex education, and so what happens is most victims don't even realize until literally decades later," said David Clohessy, a director with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Since 2007, the New York bishops' lobbying arms have poured more than $1.1m into "issues associated with timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses". During this same time period, bishops' conferences spent millions on lobbyists in states where the church is actively opposing similar legislative proposals. Opposition efforts ultimately thwarted statute of limitations reform efforts in those states.