A Time Limit on Rape

摘要

If a woman consents to having sex with a man but then during intercourse says no, and the man continues, is it rape? The answer depends on where you live. The highest courts of seven states, including Connecticut and Kansas, have ruled that a woman may withdraw her consent at any time, and if the man doesn't stop, he is committing rape. Illinois has become the first, state to pass legislation giving a woman that right to change her mind. But in Maryland-as well as in North Carolina-when a woman says yes, she can't take it back once sex has begun-or, at least, she can't call the act rape.