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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/06/this-north-carolina-law-is-straight-out-of-the-handmaids-tale/This North Carolina Law Is Straight Out of The Handmaids Tale
Women cannot legally rescind consent during sex.
Samantha Michaels
Jun. 22, 2017 4:25 PM
In North Carolina, women cant legally withdraw their consent in the middle of sex, even if things get violentand attempts to change that reality at the Legislature arent going well.
According to a 1979 state Supreme Court ruling, State v. Way, a man isnt guilty of rape if he continues to have intercourse with a woman who asks him to stop, so long as she agreed to the encounter at the outset.
North Carolina is the only state with such a law on the books, and efforts to change it have been unsuccessful, even as women have spoken out about how the law has harmed them. On Thursday, the Fayetteville Observer highlighted the story of Aaliyah Palmer, a 19-year-old who says she initially consented when a man pulled her into a bathroom to have sex at a party, but asked him to stop five minutes later after he allegedly started yanking out her hair. Youre hurting me, she said. But he kept going, she says, despite multiple demands that he stop, while others at the party allegedly slipped a cellphone under the door to tape the incident.
The man has not been charged with any crime; local police said detectives did not have evidence to suggest that a rape had occurred. But four other men have been charged in connection with the videotaping of the sexual act, and court documents linked with their cases corroborate Palmers assertion that the sex started out consensual and later turned violent, the Fayetteville Observer reports. Palmer has since withdrawn from college because of panic attacks.
Another woman, Amy Guy of Wake County, North Carolina, is also speaking out. She consented to sex in December when her estranged husband came over to her apartment drunkhe was angry, she said, and she feared what might happen if she refused. Then she changed her mind, pleading with him to stop after he became violent. He was charged with second-degree rape, but the charges were later changed to a misdemeanor for assault because of the 1979 court ruling. I was devastated. I didnt understand how that could be because I knew I had been raped, Amy Guy told WRAL. I dont understand how the law can say that I wasnt. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and received a 10-month jail sentence.
Democratic state Sen. Jeff Jackson has recently sponsored a bill to change the law, after hearing from women who were affected. SB 553 would make it illegal to have sex with someone who initially agreed but then changed her mind, but the bill is currently stuck in committee and will likely be dead for the rest of the session, Jackson told the Fayetteville Observer. North Carolina is the only state where no doesnt mean no, he said. Theres no reason for this to be partisan.
procon
(15,805 posts)In the most 'advanced' country in the world, we still have Neandertal lawmakers who are only looking out for their own self interests in writing such a law. In denying women the same rights that they hold dear for themselves, their archaic law subjugates women and forces them to suffer the ultimate degradation of her body and soul.
Maybe it's about misogynistic religious rites that aren't all that dissimilar from Sharia laws they adamantly oppose, decreeing a wife has no right over her own body, but her husband does. The only purpose of a law like this is to keep women subservient, and there was no concern that they put women were in danger of losing their lives. Since none of these conditions apply to men this is illegal discrimination by gender.
iluvtennis
(19,881 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)This is so screwed up I don't even know what to say! It is very clear that these lawmakers despise women and are doing everything in their power to make women's lives as miserable and as difficult as possible. I hope karma bites them in the ass!
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 23, 2017, 10:54 PM - Edit history (1)
Ran into it a few times.
You could still charge the person with sexual assault offenses for the physical contact that was unwanted. But not rape.
Unless the penetration ended and then resumed after consent was withdrawn, then rape was back on the table as a charge. But it's a tough one to prove in court under those circumstances.
It's been something that has needed to be fixed for a long time.
DK504
(3,847 posts)The second someone says "No or Stop" any thing after that is rape, well in the other 49 states at least.