Raped, pregnant and ordeal not over - 31 states give parental rights to rapists

[enlightenment]

25. Based on the footnotes from Prewitt's Law Journal

article (cited at the beginning of the HuffPo editorial). It was written in 2009.
http://georgetownlawjournal.org/files/pdf/98-3/Prewitt.PDF

There are 16 states that allow for some form of legal protection/redress for women who become pregnant from rape and choose to keep the child:
California; Connecticut; Idaho; Louisiana; Maine; Michigan; Missouri; Montana; Nevada; New Jersey; North Carolina; Okalahoma; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Wisconsin

From the Internet, it appears that South Carolina recently changed their laws - and there must be two more states, since she comments in the HuffPo article that there are "31 states" that allow parental rights to rapists.

Prewitt goes on (in footnote 197) to comment that although the other (at the time, 34) states do not have specific statutes, there are laws in place that can terminate parental rights based on the violent act of the perpetrator - though she considers these more of a Russian Roulette for a rape victim and her child.

She also discusses, to some degree - but not as much as other things I found on the 'net - the problem with many of the statutes; that they only apply to convicted rapists, and often the conviction has to be first (some states include second) degree rape, not a lesser crime.

The article is worth reading, although it seems to be largely about justifying a woman's decision to carry a pregnancy/keep a child that results from rape, rather than the problem of rapists' rights. I suspect that Prewitt is personally opposed to abortion - she goes to great lengths to castigate the arguments that have been used to provide the rape exception in state and federal law.