State senators are backing a bill terminating the parental rights of men who conceive children through rape.
“These women have already gone through a tough ordeal, and now we?re asking them to continuously go through it again, in the courts,” said Sen. Janet Greenip, R-Anne Arundel.
Under Maryland law, rapists have visitation and custody rights, giving them say in the child?s future.
But a bill, proposed by Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery, would allow a judge to terminate those rights if there is a rape conviction or indisputable evidence of rape.
The occurrences of conception through rape are about 5 percent, and only half of those women choose to go full term with their pregnancies, said Lisae Jordan, an attorney with the Sexual Abuse Legal Institute.
Nevertheless, rape-victim advocates say the bill is an important tool for protecting victims? identities.
If a raped woman decides to put her child up for adoption,but doesn?t have contact with the man who raped her, she has to publish her name in a legal ad to contact the rapist to complete the adoption process.
“The delay in the adoption process can really torment the survivor, and the result is the child is really harmed,” Jordan said.
Even if the rapist has a turn of heart and wants to raise the child, he should not have a right in that child?s future, lawmakers say.
“In Maryland, we have laws that keep you from profiting from your wrongs and crimes,” Raskin said.
Greenip introduced a bill that would provide the same action but only if a conviction existed. Greenip withdrew her bill in support of Raskin?s stronger proposal.
Raskin said Senate Bill 516 is expected to pass favorably in the Senate, as a similar bill did last year. That bill, however, died in a House committee.
A hearing will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Proceedings Committee in Annapolis.
