Oregon House passes revised rape law

June 24, 11:26 AMPortland Wellness ExaminerBrent Sandmeyer

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A revised rape law has passed the Oregon House

The Oregon House of Representatives unanimously passed House Bill 2343 today, a revision of the current rape statute. Under the current law, if a person is incapacitated from drinking when sexually assaulted, her attacker faces less serious charges than if he had actively drugged her. HB 2343 would make the two cases equivalent.

The revised bill eliminates the language "...because of the influence of a controlled or other intoxicating substance administered to the person without the consent of the person or because of any other act committed upon the person without the consent of the person." 

Representative Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis), the bill's sponsor, explained the motivation behind the bill:

Oregon is one of only a handful of states whose sexual assault statute contains an explicit reference to a victim's behavior prior to a sexual assault. Rape is never the victim's fault. Our law should reflect that.

-Rep. Sara Gelser, June 24, 2009

HB 2343 still needs to pass the Oregon Senate in order to become law. The bill's passage is also threatened by the imminent end of the legislative session.