The Colorado House is currently considering Senate Bill 13-227, “Protect Rape Victim From Contact With Father.” The new law would allow a women who bear children conceived as the result of sexual assault to petition to terminate the parental rights of the rapist and prevent any contact with him. This would put an end to the situation in which a convicted rapist can file for custody or visitation rights to the child conceived as the result of his crime.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously and is currently on its second reading in the Colorado House. The legislative session is over in just a few days, so this would be a good time for Colorado residents to contact their House members.
I’m surprised that this isn’t already the law. Even if the child wasn’t conceived as a result of the sexual assault, and even if the perpetrator was never legally convicted, surely no one should have to be in contact with the person who assaulted them.
It’s harder to deal with when the perpetrator wasn’t convicted, because of the due process issues in taking away someone’s parental rights. One of the things this bill does is to set up a task force to study what can be done in cases in which there is no conviction.