II 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2443 

To direct the Attorney General to make grants to States that have in place 

laws that terminate the parental rights of men who father children 

through rape. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 5, 2014 

Mr. BROWN (for himself, Ms. AYOTTE, Ms. LANDRIEU, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Ms. 

BALDWIN, Mrs. SHAHEEN, and Mr. NELSON) introduced the following 

bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To direct the Attorney General to make grants to States 

that have in place laws that terminate the parental rights 

of men who father children through rape. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rape Survivor Child 

5 Custody Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Men who father children through rape 

2 should be prohibited from visiting or having custody 

3 of those children. 

4 (2) Thousands of rape-related pregnancies 

5 occur annually in the United States. 

6 (3) A substantial number of women choose to 

7 raise their child conceived through rape and, as a re8 sult, may face custody battles with their rapists. 

9 (4) Rape is one of the most under-prosecuted 

10 serious crimes, with estimates of criminal conviction 

11 occurring in less than 5 percent of rapes. 

12 (5) The clear and convincing evidence standard 

13 is the most common standard for termination of pa14 rental rights among the 50 States, territories, and 

15 the District of Columbia. 

16 (6) The Supreme Court established that the 

17 clear and convincing evidence standard satisfies due 

18 process for allegations to terminate or restrict pa19 rental rights in Santosky v. Kramer (455 U.S. 745 

20 (1982)). 

21 (7) Currently only 6 States have statutes allow22 ing rape survivors to petition for the termination of 

23 parental rights of the rapist based on clear and con24 vincing evidence that the child was conceived 

25 through rape. 


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1 (8) A rapist pursuing parental or custody rights 

2 causes the survivor to have continued interaction 

3 with the rapist, which can have traumatic psycho4 logical effects on the survivor, and can make it more 

5 difficult for her to recover. 

6 (9) These traumatic effects on the mother can 

7 severely negatively impact her ability to raise a 

8 healthy child. 

9 (10) Rapists may use the threat of pursuing 

10 custody or parental rights to coerce survivors into 

11 not prosecuting rape, or otherwise harass, intimi12 date, or manipulate them. 

13 SEC. 3. GRANTS AUTHORIZED. 

14 The Attorney General shall make grants to States 

15 that have in place a law that allows the mother of any 

16 child that was conceived through rape to seek court-or17 dered termination of the parental rights of her rapist with 

18 regard to that child, which the court shall grant upon clear 

19 and convincing evidence of rape. 

20 SEC. 4. APPLICATION. 

21 A State seeking a grant under this Act shall submit 

22 an application to the Attorney General at such time, in 

23 such manner, and containing such information as the At24 torney General may reasonably require, including informa25 tion about the law described in section 3. 


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1 SEC. 5. GRANT AMOUNT. 

2 The amount of a grant to a State under this Act shall 

3 be in an amount that is not greater than 10 percent of 

4 the average of the total amount of funding of the 3 most 

5 recent awards that the State received under the following 

6 grant programs: 

7 (1) Part T of title I of the Omnibus Crime Con8 trol and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 

9 3796gg et seq.) (commonly referred to as the 

10 ‘‘STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grant 

11 Program’’). 

12 (2) Section 41601 of the Violence Against 

13 Women Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14043g) (commonly 

14 referred to as the ‘‘Sexual Assault Services Pro15 gram’’). 

16 SEC. 6. GRANT TERM. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—The term of a grant under this 

18 Act shall be for one year. 

19 (b) RENEWAL.—A State that receives a grant under 

20 this Act may submit an application for a renewal of such 

21 grant at such time, in such manner, and containing such 

22 information as the Attorney General may reasonably re23 quire. 

24 (c) LIMIT.—A State may not receive a grant under 

25 this Act for more than 4 years. 


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1 SEC. 7. USES OF FUNDS. 

2 A State that receives a grant under this section shall 

3 use— 

4 (1) 25 percent of such funds for any of the per5 missible uses of funds under the grant program de6 scribed in paragraph (1) of section 5; and 

7 (2) 75 percent of such funds for any of the per8 missible uses of funds under the grant program de9 scribed in paragraph (2) of section 5. 

10 SEC. 8. TERMINATION DEFINED. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—In this Act, the term ‘‘termi12 nation’’ means, when used with respect to parental rights, 

13 a complete and final termination of the parent’s right to 

14 custody of, guardianship of, visitation with, access to, and 

15 inheritance from a child. 

16 (b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec17 tion shall be construed to require a State, in order to re18 ceive a grant under this Act, to have in place a law that 

19 terminates any obligation of a person who fathered a child 

20 through rape to support the child. 

21 SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

22 There is authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 

23 for each of fiscal years 2014 through 2018. 

Æ 


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