STAND. COM. REP. NO. 449

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 922

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 922 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SEXUAL ASSAULT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to ensure that family courts terminate the parental rights of natural parents convicted of rape or sexual assault with respect to children who were conceived as a result of the rape or sexual assault.  

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the American Association of University Women Hawaii and four individuals.

Your Committee finds that currently family court is permitted, but not mandated, to terminate the parental rights to a child of a natural parent if the natural parent is convicted of rape or sexual assault and that crime results in the conception of the child.  Your Committee further finds that sexual assault victims who have children as a result of the crime perpetrated against them face additional struggles and should not have to face the possibility of their assaulter remaining in their life because the assaulter retained parental rights to the child.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 922 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Housing,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair