WASHINGTON — Maryland came in for what “Daily Show” correspondent Samantha Bee called “a little good old-fashioned state-shaming” when the state failed to change a law that allows rapists to retain their parental rights if their victim keeps her baby.
In the “Daily Show” segment, Bee learns that a number of states — Maryland among them — allow a rapist to sue for custody or visitation or other parental rights, and replies, “This canNOT be real!”
That’s the way Maryland state Sen. Jamie Raskin felt. He’s one of the Maryland lawmakers who’s tried three times to pass a law that would allow a woman to deny her rapist’s parental rights, but as he explains, “this is just one of those bills that gets batted back and forth like a ping-pong ball between the two chambers” in the Maryland General Assembly.
Raskin says the bill stalled in the House. Lisae Jordan, executive director of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, says current law “treats the rapist like any other father.”
Jordan explains that the bill proposed in Annapolis during this Assembly session would allow victims to terminate parental rights, just as they could if there were allegations of child abuse or neglect. In those cases, Jordan and Raskin point out that a parent doesn’t have to be convicted of abuse or neglect in order to terminate parental rights. They want the same to be true in cases of alleged rape.
Raskin says after the “Daily Show” segment aired in the final weeks of the Assembly session, “Suddenly everybody’s been getting deluged with emails.”
Raskin adds, “Every year, more and more people ‘get it,’ and Maryland will get this right. And I’m hoping that next session is the session to do it.“
Jordan agrees, saying “I really am grateful to ‘The Daily Show.’” But she adds, “It would be ironic that a comedy news show would help our advocacy so much.”
See the ‘Daily Show’ report here:
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
