Pennsylvania Legislature Revisits Proposed Law To Limit Parental Rights of Rapists
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- A bipartisan group of Pennsylvania lawmakers today announced the reintroduction of legislation to eliminate what one legislator calls a "bizarre loophole" in state law that further traumatizes women who bear a child conceived through rape.
Delilah Rumburg, chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (at lectern), says as it stands now under Pennsylvania law, a rapist has parental rights when his victim becomes pregnant, gives birth to a child, and chooses to raise it.
Today, Rumburg implored Pennsylvania lawmakers to take speedy action to change the law.
"No victim of sexual assault who has endured rape, a pregnancy resulting from rape, and the process of the investigation and the prosecution, which often takes more than a year... no victims should then find themselves facing the prospect of having the rapist in their life," she said.
The legislation would change the law to preserve the rapist's child support obligation when parental rights are terminated. Lawmakers ran out of time to pass similar legislation in their previous two-year session.
