Maryland rape victims no longer forced to share parental rights with assailants

After a decade of organizing and activism to change the law, Maryland rape victims can now ask the courts to terminate the parental rights of their assailants. According to Time, lawmakers who’ve been supporting this law say that it’s due, in part, to timing: not only is the #MeToo movement roaring on, but also all 188 seats in the state’s General Assembly are up for re-election.

Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, expressed early support and noted during his State of the State speech last week that he would sign it. Crafted as an emergency bill, it will take effect with his signature, potentially within days.

“Ten years is a milestone number,” said Sen. Cheryl Kagan, a Democrat, adding: “The fact that it’s an election year, I think, can’t be minimized.”

The victim still has to do some work to terminate her assailant’s parental rights. Approval for their request won’t be guaranteed—but it’s definitely an improvement from the law was before.

The measure will enable a woman who becomes pregnant by her assailant to ask a court to end the attacker’s parental rights. The woman must provide “clear and convincing” proof that the man raped her. That is lower than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold needed for criminal convictions, and some civil liberties-minded lawmakers had opposed the idea for years to avoid revoking the rights of people who have not been criminally convicted.

This win comes after the bill almost passed last year but failed before the General Assembly’s legislative session ended.