Paris Hilton Celebrates Congress Passing Her Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act: ‘This Is a Day I’ll Never Forget’

Mar. 15, 2025

Paris Hilton outside the U.S. Capitol on December 17, 2024.Photo:Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Paris Hiltonis celebrating a huge milestone after using her celebrity and personal experience to enact protections for institutionalized youth.

“Today is a day I will never forget,” the celebrity DJ, 43, began as the caption to a 20-photoInstagram carouselon Wednesday, Dec. 18.

“After years of sharing my story and advocating on Capitol Hill, theStop Institutional Child Abuse Acthas officially passed the U.S Congress,” she said.

The bill regulates best practices regarding the health and safety, care, treatment and appropriate placement of youth in boarding schools, boot camps and other youth centers, according toCongressand the organization’s website.

Paris Hilton, center, is seen with Reps. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) as they emerge from the U.S. Capitol after the House passed the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act Dec. 18, 2024.Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP

Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP

The first image showed Hilton, dressed in a black pantsuit and multicolored top, standing on the steps of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. as she held a poster with images of children above her head.

“Children should not die in treatment,” her message read.

Additional photos showed the socialite standing with members from herTrapped in Treatmentpodcast, a docu-style series where Hilton reveals the truth about her abuse atProvo Canyon Schoolalongside a mix of experts as they discuss the origins of the Troubled Teen Industry.

Paris Hilton testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee during a hearing on child welfare on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 in Washington.AARON SCHWARTZ/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty

AARON SCHWARTZ/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty

Hilton first opened up about her experience in her 2020 documentary,This Is Paris.

“It was supposed to be a school, but [classes] were not the focus at all,” Hilton previously told PEOPLE about the behavioral health center her parents sent her to as a teen. “From the moment I woke up until I went to bed, it was all day screaming in my face, yelling at me, continuous torture.”

In her Instagram caption Wednesday, Hilton thanked “the countless survivors who shared their stories, to the families who stood with us.”

“And to the coalition, thank you from the bottom of my heart for standing with me,” she added, also tagging several legislators who assisted with getting the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act passed.

Hilton concluded: “And to the children still trapped in these systems: I will never stop fighting for you. Change is possible! 🙌🏼.”

Paris Hilton at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on October, 20, 2021.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty

MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty

Her family was also onboard to support her efforts, as Hilton shared smiling photos of her husband,Carter Reum, along with their son,Phoenix Barron Hilton Reum, whom the couple welcomed via surrogate on Jan. 16, 2023.

She and Reum are also parents toLondon Marilyn Hilton Reum, 1, who arrived via surrogate in November 2023.

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Ahead of the bill being passed, Hilton shared an open letter onInstagramearlier this week, stating that she was “physically restrained, sexually abused, isolated, overmedicated, and stripped of my dignity” as a teenager at Provo Canyon School.

The mother of two urged “every member of the House" to “think of the children who can’t speak for themselves.”

source: people.com