Comments

1
If Washington were a "the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down" kind of state, I would wonder if it was just another way to imply rape victims are always suspect and likely lying. Being the deep blue state it is though, my guess is that this protection doesn't exist because many legislators didn't even know it was a problem. I'm guessing if you polled people right now about whether rapists can lay claim to the children their victims give birth to, the overwhelming majority would say no, no matter what the law actually say. Many of us simply assume that absurdly obvious things have to be enshrined in law already, and I expect many legislators are no different.
2
Hopefully the rapist trying to take custody of the child is so rare, or judges have other options to support the victim, that this has not come up before.
3
Rodney Tom (scumbag, medina) filibuster in 3,2...
4
I applaud the intents of this bill. But, I fear the language of "clear, cogent and convincing evidence" is vague enough to be used and abused in the midst of a bitter divorce in order to prevent the father from having contact with the child.

I think adding in language such as this also necessitates additional language for additional specific proof or evidence in the case of marriage dissolvement. Yes, I know that men can be spousal abusers in a marriage, but I also know that some extremely disgusting things can be said in the midst of a angry divorce just to fuck over the other party.
5
According to your linked article the guy was acquitted in court of rape. Do you want to remove that innocent until proven guilty in a court of law thing to be nixed ?

no court on earth that would allow her alleged rapist (he was never convicted) to have custody rights.
6
The linked article also says he wasn't charged until after the kid was born.
7
@5: Custody disputes are a civil matter. Standards of proof in civil court are not always the same as those in criminal court. It is entirely plausible that the same allegations of sexual assault could result in an acquittal in criminal court, but be sufficient for a ruling terminating parental rights in civil court.

@6: That isn't clear - the article says she was served with papers requesting custody after her daughter's birth, while she was pursuing charges. It doesn't say when she reported the assault.
8
There's a popular statistic that says only 2% of rape allegations are false. A much better way of saying this is: 98% of rape allegations are true. And that's not even counting the large number of rape cases that never get reported at all. Going through the reporting process is expensive, humiliating, time-consuming, and generally far more trouble for the victim than for the accused. Rape convictions are also notoriously hard to get -- witness the case in Australia last year where the man was found not guilty because the woman's pants were too tight, therefore she had to have helped remove them, therefore consent was implied.

So if your first reaction to the above bill is "But what if the wimmenz is lying? Defend the doodz!", you are choosing to defend a tiny, tiny percentage of the population and ignoring the far more likely harm that millions of women have suffered, are suffering, or will suffer.
9
My first reaction is not to toss aside the innocent until proven guilty idea to create special rules for handling these extremely rare circumstances where a woman who is raped decides she wants to keep the baby conceived with the rapist. I could have sworn this was a law and order:svu plot at one point.

I'm not sure a rape trial is likely to be completed in 9 months but I do take a dim view of creating parental rights laws that further presume the mother is the one to get sole custody. Reading the bill text is sounds like a whole lot of restrictions on what can be entered into evidence which seems to tie the hands of the defense.
10
I'm really struggling to understand why such a baby would not have been aborted. Rapist genes spreading and constant reminder of the violation. Just awful on every level this is.
11
Does the rapist, if not granted any parental rights, still pay child support?
12
@8 While 2% is a popular statistic, studies have ranged from 2% all the way up to 40+%. And a meta study has come up with the quote that it is impossible to determine a rate of false allegation with any degree of accuracy.

Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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