Cosmopolitan Magazine: Maryland Fails to Pass Rape Survivor Family Protection Act

Apr 28th, 2017

A recent Cosmopolitan OpEd jointly authored by Maryland Delegate Kathleen Dumais and MCASA's own Executive Director Lisae Jordan discusses the repeated failure of the Maryland General Assembly to pass the Rape Survivor Family Protection Act. Maryland is one of just seven states with no mechanism to terminate the parental rights of a rapist when a rape results in pregnancy. Del. Dumais and Ms. Jordan tell stories of several Maryland rape survivors forced to deal with the harmful effects of this gap in our laws, and point out that the bill has had broad bipartisan support, even bringing together such diverse groups as the Maryland Catholic Conference and Planned Parenthood. As Del. Dumais and Ms. Jordan remind us, the bill failed this year because the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee severely weakened their version of the bill, and the conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill was not convened until it was too late to pass the legislation. Click here to read the full article.

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