Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Cleveland Ohio kidnapper and presumed rapist can sue for custody of his victim's child

Cross-posted from MN Political Roundtable

Three women who were kidnapped ten years ago were found recently when one of them escaped, along with a child belonging to the woman who escaped.  The photo below shows the woman who escaped, Amanda Berry, and her daughter, along with Berry’s sister on the viewer’s left.

 This image obtained May 7, 2013 courtesy of WOIO TV shows Amanda Berry (C) reunited with her sister (L) on May 6, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio after Berry and two other women who had been missing for a decade were found alive in a house not far from where they were last seen. Picture: AFP.
All three kidnapped women and the little girl were released from the hospital this morning, where they had been taken after being rescued.

But their ordeal is not over, especially this victim’s, despite the arrest of the three brothers accused of the kidnappings.

While the right wing makes it harder and harder for women to get an abortion if they are impregnated due to rape, 31 states – including Ohio AND MINNESOTA – allow rapists to assert parental rights, preventing women from getting abortions, and awarding them shared custody of the resulting children.
This is morally repugnant, both that women could be denied an abortion after rape, and that a rapist could claim parental rights.

If you agree, don’t feel there is nothing you can do.  We can change this.  First, we can push back in this state and nationally against those who are trying to destroy and deny a woman’s right of autonomy over her own body that has been part of the conservative political platform, both state and national.
We can do more than that; please support  enacting federal laws to strip parental rights from rapists over their victim’s children.  Please support doing so in the Minnesota state legislature as well.

5 comments:

  1. well said doggone but the usa is melting away as you know it due to letting anyone in the national borders...so there will be some type of violent reaction i assume by the right wing that is against it versus the democrat party /obama supporters who are ruining the usa...enjoy the party when it comes...the ideas of womans rights in a pregnancy matter will be on the back burner if america is burning-- duh blame the Liberals -- they ruined the usa since 2008...

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    1. I know nothing of the kind. And if you take a long hard look, it is the right wing nuts who are ruining the USA.

      Or did you miss the entire period of the Bush years?

      Women are proving themselves a force in elections, and we played a big role in electing Obama. No one is going to put the genie back in the bottle on either contraception, or abortion rights. So long as the right continues to support anti-women policies and positions - like making it easier to discriminate or pay us less - they will continue to lose.

      The role of women in America and in every other country, developed or less developed, has been positive. And liberal.

      This is not an immigration issue, it is an issue of public safety and women's health. Liberals are better on both. We're also better on immigration and actual security, not the illusion of security and crazy fear mongering - but thanks for commenting.

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  2. No one is hijacking a tragedy. This is a valid legislative issue. And there are liberals, centrists, moderate conservatives who don't share the misogyny of the right, which is the only shame.

    I notice you are deficient in any actual factual objection to what I've written.

    Why would you support it being legal for rapists to sue for paternal rights? THAT is what is obscene.

    If you don't, you have no legitimate complaint here. It is simply thoughtful to note that there is an inherent controversy waiting to happen over the identity and custody of this little girl.

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  3. These kidnapped women were raped and beaten, as details emerge of this crime. One of the women appears to have become pregnant as a result of rape, and has a daughter approximately 6 years old.

    In congress, we have legislation proposed. Democrats, including Minnesota Democrats, want to strip rapists of any paternal rights at the federal level.

    While the pro-rape GOP, including legislation drafter John Kline, wants to give federal recognition to the paternal rights of rapists, including the right to force a woman to have a child resulting from rape.

    The reality is that we have lots of rapes that are not prosecuted. One of the reasons is that the rapists use a variety of means to coerce women into avoiding the legal system, including the threat they will sue for joint custody unless women don't follow through on pressing charges.

    We can use this tragedy to promote greater awareness of how we re-victimize the victims of rape, and it can promote a larger discussion, or we can continue to fail to value women as full and equal human beings, we can treat them as valueless except as baby incubators, and join the right wing's march back into the dark ages.

    This has nothing to do with a failure of democratic politics, and it has nothing to do with immigration. It has everything to do with failed right wing thinking - which two comments have demonstrated here, and the failure of right wing values to have any validity.

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  4. Yes I sadly found this out today that rapists in OH have rights to custody and visitation. Sickening. A woman who is the victim of rape shouldn't have to get her rapist's 'permission' to get an abortion or put the child up for adoption and she shouldn't have to deal with the son of a bitch for the rest of her life if she chooses to keep the child. I'm ashamed of being an OH citizen. A law like this may very well make women not want to report rape in these 31 states that allow rapists custody/visitation rights to any children conceived in such a crime and it's sad because it is already under reported due to police and the DA make the victim out to be a criminal.

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