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Subcommittee advances bill to prevent rapists from claiming parental rights
Summary
After extensive testimony from survivors, researchers and opposition groups, the Civil Subcommittee reported House Bill 1727, a Delaney-sponsored measure that would prevent a person whose criminal sexual conduct resulted in a conception from establishing parental rights in Virginia under a civil process.
The Civil Subcommittee voted 5-2 to report House Bill 1727 by Delegate Del. Delaney, a measure that would establish civil procedures to prevent a person whose criminal sexual conduct resulted in a conception from obtaining parental rights, or to allow the court to remove or limit parental claims, without requiring a prior criminal conviction.
Delegate Delaney framed the bill as filling a gap in Virginia law that forces survivors who carry pregnancies resulting from rape to continue to interact with and often co-parent with their perpetrators. “If a person claims parental rights and has been proven by clear and convincing evidence to have raped the parent who gave birth, that person should not be able to assert parental rights,” Delaney said in committee testimony.
Several witnesses told the committee…
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