Poor Mojo's Newswire

You see, nine months after my rape, I gave birth to a beautiful little girl. You could say she was conceived in rape; she was. But she is also so much more than her beginnings. I blissfully believed that after I finally had decided to give birth to and to raise my daughter, life would be all roses and endless days at the playground. I was wrong again. It would not be long before I would learn firsthand that in the vast majority of states -- 31 -- men who father through rape are able to assert the same custody and visitation rights to their children that other fathers enjoy. When no law prohibits a rapist from exercising these rights, a woman may feel forced to bargain away her legal rights to a criminal trial in exchange for the rapist dropping the bid to have access to her child. . . . Having fought this injustice for the past several years, I have come to believe that ignorance is to blame for this legal absence. Opponents argue no woman would ever choose to raise the child she conceived through rape. The only two studies to analyze the choices made by pregnant raped women indicate otherwise -- at least 30% of women who conceive by rape make this choice. Others argue that no rapist would ever seek parental rights. Not only does my experience and that of others I know prove otherwise, but it is not surprising that a man who cruelly degrades a woman would also seek to torture her in an even more agonizing way, by seeking access to her child. Today, it seems we may face a new and unbelievable challenge: convincing legislators that women can conceive when they are raped. . . .

A shooting occurred Friday morning outside the Empire State Building on 34th Street in New York City, according to police. Three people are reportedly dead, as is the gunman. Emergency personnel received a call about the shooting just after 9 am. The motive of the shooting is not yet clear. The shooting follows a killing spree last night in the south and west sides of Chicago, in which 19 people were shot in just 30 minutes, including seven men and one woman, 14 to 20 years old. Chicago homicides have skyrocketed in the past few months.