(USAToday)
I drafted the law for my home state to terminate the parental rights of rapists. No matter your position on abortion bans, these laws must change.
I was Louisiana's first special assistant on women's policy, advising the governor and presenting the governor's proclamation for domestic violence awareness month. Then I was raped. It was 2003.
After I became pregnant as a result of the attack, I did not want to think of myself as a victim. I chose to carry my pregnancy to term. It gave me hope that I was not completely broken and destroyed. But it was my personal decision to have my daughter and raise her.
I did not expect to feel the horror and shock that came years later, in 2010, when my rapist tried to claim custody of my child.
My rapist was never convicted for what he did to me. When the day came that I was served with court papers on his behalf, I was terrified of the danger this posed for my child, who had no idea what I would have to go through to protect her. Read more