Contact: Gina Lauterio
Telephone: 908-783-3542
Email: info@saveservices.org

SAVE Calls on Gov. Brown to Veto Bill that Would Endanger Rape Victims and Trivialize Sexual Assault

WASHINGTON / September 25, 2014 – SAVE, a national victim-advocacy organization, is today calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to veto SB-967, which would impose an Affirmative Consent requirement on California colleges. The bill has been the focus of national ridicule and controversy since it was introduced earlier this year.

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments – SAVE – believes it is illogical to believe that a rapist intent on committing a violent assault would be deterred by the need to obtain a woman’s on-going “affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement,” as the law would require. SAVE charges the bill’s Affirmative Consent provisions would lull potential victims into a false of security.

SB-967 would also blur the distinction between consensual sex and criminal rape, SAVE says. This would serve to squander investigative resources on highly questionable cases and to trivialize the legitimate needs of rape survivors.

Robin Koerner has observed, “Most consensual sexual activity between normal people does not involve the kind of explicit, subsequently provable statement of consent, that this bill demands.” The bill would also have the effect of removing the presumption of innocence and removing due process protections for the accused: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-koerner/no-sex-please-were-califo_b_5774674.html

Writing in the New Republic, Batya Ungar-Sargon recently argued SB-967 would only serve to codify a “troubling double standard” that would have the “potential to pervert justice.” http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119459/californias-campus-consent-laws-every-sex-act-potential-crime

“Not a single legislator who voted in favor of this bill has ever stated that he or she actually complies with the dictates of this bill in his or her private life,” notes SAVE spokesperson Sheryle Hutter. “That says a lot how impractical SB-967 would be in real life.”

Numerous editorials have criticized and ridiculed the notion of Affirmative Consent: www.accusingu.org .

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments is working to promote effective and fair solutions to the problem of campus sexual assault: http://www.saveservices.org/