Under Pennsylvania law, if a woman bears a child from rape, she can ask a judge to end the rapist father's parental rights, such as custody or visitation.

But if she does so, under a loophole in the law, the woman would surrender her ability to collect child support from the father.

State Rep.

, D-Lehigh, hopes to change that by introducing a bill that would let a rape victim terminate those parental rights and still receive child support.

"For a million painfully obvious reasons, we never want to give a rapist a legal advantage over a victim," Schlossberg said. "The law should protect the victim, not the rapist."

State law allows a parent to petition for involuntary termination of parental rights in several cases, including if the parent is the father of a child conceived from rape or incest.

But as the domestic relations law currently reads, if that father's parental rights are terminated, his child support obligations also end.

Schlossberg said being forced to choose between the two further victimizes a rape victim and is particularly burdensome for lower-income single women who depend on that child support.

"This creates a huge injustice for a woman who may be further traumatized by being forced into maintaining even a cursory relationship with her attacker," he said.

Schlossberg is seeking co-sponsors for his bill. Within the next month he plans to introduce it to the House Judiciary Committee, which would review it before making a recommendation to the full House.

Nationwide look

Although 26 states allow rape victims to place their children for adoption without the father's consent, 31 states have no laws allowing them to terminate the father's parental rights if the victim keeps the child.

Thirteen states -- including Pennsylvania -- have laws allowing the termination of a rapist father's parental rights,

.

Another six limit the father's visitation or custody rights, including New Jersey, which prevents custody or visitation to a rapist parent "unless it is in the best interest of the child," the study says.

Kristen Houser, spokeswoman for the

, said proposed laws like Schlossberg's are "common sense," but aren't more widespread because cases of rapists pushing for parental rights aren't common or widely publicized.

"I really think this comes down to how frequently do you have an assailant who is so sadistic that they try to claim parental rights?" she said. "But it does happen, and it's just so off the charts of anything the average person can conceive of happening."

Houser said she believes more attention is being brought to the issue after last year's elections, when candidates received national attention for their comments about rape.

She cited Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, who famously said women rarely get pregnant from "legitimate rape," and Indiana U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who said pregnancy from rape was "something that God intended." Both men lost their elections.

Past efforts unsuccessful

Nationwide, about 32,100 women become pregnant from rape each year,

from the Medical University of South Carolina.

Pennsylvania lawmakers have made unsuccessful efforts in the past to ban custody or visitation for rapist fathers altogether, unless the child is of suitable age and consents to the father's rights.

State Rep. Angel Cruz, D-Philadelphia, has proposed that bill twice in the last three years, although unlike Schlossberg's, it does not address child support.

Cruz drafted the bill after two of his constituents who had children from rape expressed that their rapist was getting out of jail and they were powerless to stop him from visiting with their children, according to Joseph Evangelista, Cruz's chief of staff.

Evangelista said both bills were defeated because the Republican party controls the state House, Senate and governor's office, and he believes they obstruct any legislation from the Democratic party.

He also said special interest groups objected to the legislation because it specifically targeted rapists who are men and they wanted language that was gender-neutral.

Contact Allentown reporter Colin McEvoy at 484-894-2549 or cmcevoy@express-times.com.