If you are raped in Maryland, your rapist has full parental rights if you get pregnant.

A woman who chooses to keep her child conceived in rape has already experienced the ultimate violation. She shouldn’t have to relive the experience again by dealing with her assailant in long drawn out custody battles or forced visitations. This is unthinkable and it needs to be changed.

We need legislation to give courts the power to deny paternity rights to sexual assailants who conceive as a result of the assault, and we need it now. Currently a woman’s rapist could use the threat of a custody battle to force a woman to drop criminal charges or even block adoption proceedings if she chooses to give up the child.

For several years the Maryland Senate has tried to pass legislation to end this practice. They, like 29 other states who currently have this legislation, understand the importance of a law that would terminate a rapist’s custody and allow the victim to move on with her life. However, each time it dies in the House and fails to become law. This is unacceptable and we need to make sure the House understands the pain they are causing women who find themselves in this situation.

If a raped woman decides to give birth to a child conceived through sexual violence, her assailant shouldn’t have the legally sanctioned right to harass her with motions in court for visitation, custody, and other forms of family involvement. This is just common sense.

Join the Maryland Senate and more than a dozen state groups including women’s advocacy groups, family planning organizations and the state attorney general’s office and tell the Maryland House of Delegates the time is now to end parental rights for rapists!