Loophole Lets Rapists Sue for Custody Rights

During Christmas break of her sophomore year in high school, Ashley was raped by a 19-year-old man at her older cousin’s house. Apparently, their drinks were spiked with a date-rape drug. Neither she nor her cousin remembered any details.

Feeling ashamed and disgusted, she decided not to report the rape and try to forget it ever happened. But even those plans were shattered two weeks later when she missed her period. Since she was not sexually active, there was no question that the father of her child could only be the rapist.

Devastated, her parents took her to the police. But too much time had passed. There was no hope of convicting the perpetrator. Abortion was not even on her radar. Nonetheless, unwanted pressure to abort immediately started coming from well-meaning, but misinformed friends and relatives. She resisted the pressure.

Supported by her family, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy nine months after the assault. By then, she had long since stopped thinking of him as the child of a rapist. Instead, she loved him as her son.

Soon, however, the realities of single motherhood forced her to apply for daycare assistance, WIC and food stamps. That’s when more trouble began. The state of Wisconsin forced her to seek child support from her attacker and opened the door for her rapist to sue for custody.

Horrified, she tried in vain to close the door. She would forgo the state’s assistance if only they would not force her to share custody with her attacker. But the door, once opened, could not be closed. Whether or not she got state aid, they told her that he still had all his paternal rights.

Without a rape conviction, the law treated him the same as any other single dad. By the time her son was 2, the state was forcing her to exchange phone numbers, email addresses and meet face to face with the man who had raped her three years before. (“I Was Forced to Devise a Parenting Plan with My Rapist, LifeSiteNews, Jan. 6, 2017)

Wisconsin eventually passed legislation to close the loophole that forced Ashley into this nightmare. Now Wisconsin women who have already suffered from rape will not have to endure the additional trauma of sharing custody with their rapist.

If you think this couldn’t happen in Wyoming, think again. Just ask Aimee Kidd. She has been publicly telling her story in blogs and before the Casper City Council for months. Her daughter is now three months old, but the rapist father is still on the streets.

During the legislative session of 2015, Rep. Jim Blackburn, R-Cheyenne, introduced a bill (HB 158) to deny rapists custody rights. It sailed through the House and through the Senate Judiciary Committee. But then it died because the Senate president never allowed it to come to the floor.

Eleven years after Ashley woke up to face an ongoing nightmare, Wyoming remained in the minority of states that still allow this outrage. But this year we have another chance. Since Blackburn’s bill died, new bipartisan legislation was introduced in Washington, D.C., called the “Rape Survivor Child Custody Act” (H.R. 1257). In 2015, it was signed into law by President Obama.

This bill gives states incentives to pass legislation like Blackburn’s. For those that do, federal dollars are granted to help victims of sexual violence. In order to qualify, custody must be denied not only when rapists are convicted, but also in the case of clear and convincing evidence where a conviction was not obtained.

This provision is an important one. According to the “Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network,” only 6 out of 1,000 rapes come to a conviction. That leaves far too many victims who never experience the peace of mind of seeing their attacker behind bars. In cases like Ashley’s, Aimee’s and 99 percent of rape pregnancies, they remain unprotected from a lifetime of traumatic dealings with their rapist.

Rep. Blackburn will soon introduce “Sexual Assault Custody Rights” to the House again. Not only will it protect Wyoming women from living through a nightmare like Ashley’s, it will also qualify Wyoming to receive additional federal funds to help heal rape survivors and prevent violence against women.

This is one of those bills that provides Wyoming politics with a much-needed break from partisan arguments. With strong support from Republicans and Democrats alike, it gives us a place to come together for the sake of the most vulnerable.

Let’s tell our lawmakers to pass this bill. It is bad enough that we fail to protect so many women from the trauma of rape. The least we can do is pass a simple law to protect them and their children from further injury.

Further Reading:
Wyoming Tribune Eagle: Loophole Lets Rapists Sue for Custody Rights
Casper Star-Tribune: Committee Guts Rape Protection Bill