ATLANTA— State Representative Keisha Waites (D-Atlanta) will reintroduce House Bill 397 in the upcoming 2014 Legislative Session, which would remove the parental rights of rapists for children conceived as a result of their crime. In Georgia, when a woman becomes pregnant as a result of rape, the rapist has the same parental rights as does any other father.
“HB 397 would simply provide the courts with greater discretion in protecting mothers who have been violated by their assailants,” said Rep. Waites. “This bill would allow removal of the custodial rights of the parent who caused the child to be conceived by rape or statutory rape, or who committed an act of child molestation or incest with that child.”
House Bill 397 was originally introduced during the 2013 Legislative Session, but after the recent trial of accused rapist, Ariel Castro, Rep. Waites felt it necessary to reintroduce this legislation. Ariel Castro was recently convicted of kidnapping and raping three women and holding them captive in his Ohio home for over ten years. Castro later requested to visit the six year old child he fathered with one of the women he kidnapped and raped. His request was turned down by an Ohio judge, but the state of Ohio currently has no laws that would take away Castro’s parental rights for fathering the child.
Ohio is one of 31 states, including Georgia that has no statutory provision for the termination of parental rights of the father when the pregnancy is a result of rape. As a result of this legal absence, raped women and their children are left to face potentially terrible consequences.
“Without this legislation women who decide to keep their children are forever tied to their rapist because of archaic laws that seem to overlook the large population of women who decide to keep the baby,” said Rep. Waites. “After a woman experiences such a horrific ordeal, we must not further violate and punish a mother by demanding she be tethered to her rapist for the remainder of her life.”
For more information HB 397, please click here.
Rep. Waites represents the citizens of District 60, which includes Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, parts of the City of Atlanta, Hapeville, College Park, Forest Park, East Point and other portions of Fulton and Clayton counties. She currently serves as a member on the Transportation, Juvenile Justice (formerly Children & Youth), Public Safety and Homeland Security, Interstate Cooperation, and Special Rules committees.
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