ATLANTA – State Representative Brad Raffensperger (R-Johns Creek) recently pre-filed House Bill 713 for the upcoming 2016 legislative session. HB 713 would terminate the parental rights of men who fathered children through rape or sex trafficking.
“I am introducing this legislation to provide additional legal protections for women who are victims of sexual assault and children who are conceived by rape,” said Rep. Raffensperger. “Rape is a heinous, criminal and violent act, and Georgia needs to strengthen our laws that protect women and children. It is alarming to see situations in many states where a rapist father finds out that his victim is pregnant and attempts to assert his parental rights as leverage to get his female victim to drop the charges, or to agree not to testify against him.”
HB 713 would allow courts in Georgia to terminate parental rights of a parent who caused the child to be conceived by rape or trafficking for sexual servitude. It also adds additional grounds for parental powers to be lost by any parent who caused the child to be conceived by rape, child molestation, sexual assault, incest, or sex trafficking. Under current Georgia law, parental rights can be lost if a parent is convicted of: child molestation, sexual assault, incest, or sex trafficking.
There are an estimated 25,000 rape-related pregnancies in the United States each year, and 30 percent of those women elect to keep their child. More than 25 states have enacted legislation to protect the women and children, but under current Federal law, when a woman becomes pregnant as a result of rape, the rapist has the same parental rights as the child’s mother.
“I became aware of this injustice this summer when I was first told of the ordeal of Ms. Shauna Prewitt,” added Rep. Raffensperger. “Ms. Prewitt was raped while in university, and a child was conceived and brought to full term. Ms. Prewitt reluctantly agreed not to testify against her rapist perpetrator as part of a settlement to ensure that he would not be part of her life and the life of her child. This injustice to Ms. Prewitt energized her to study law, and she now fights for legal protections for women and children that are victims of rape. She spoke to a full banquet hall in Atlanta this September, and her story is moving. This legislation is necessary, and I fully expect it will have a broad base of support from all segments of both our House and Senate.”
HB 713 will be formally introduced during the 2016 legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly.
For more information about HB 713, please click here.
Representative Brad Raffensperger represents the citizens of District 50, which includes portions of Fulton County. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2015 and currently serves on the Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications, Intragovernmental Coordination, and Juvenile Justice committees.
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