Boner Candidate #1: I GOT RIGHTS AS A FATHER.
When a young woman came to the Family Services of North Alabama office last year for help with trauma, saying she had been raped by her step-uncle when she was 15, rape crisis advocate Portia Shepherd heard something that “killed me, shocked me.” The step-uncle, who was getting out of jail after a drug conviction, wanted to be a part of their child’s life. And in Alabama, the alleged rapist could get custody. “It’s the craziest thing I ever heard in my life,” Shepherd said. “On the state level, people were shocked. How could Alabama even be missing this law?” Alabama is one of two states with no statute terminating parental rights for a person found to have conceived the child by rape or incest, a fact that has gained fresh relevance since its lawmakers adopted the nation’s strictest abortion ban in May. That statute even outlaws the procedure for victims of sexual assault and jails doctors who perform it, except in cases of serious risk to the woman’s health. While the Alabama abortion law has been challenged in court, abortion rights activists fear it could reduce access to the procedure, forcing rape victims to bear children and co-parent with their attackers.
Boner Candidate #2: TO GO OR SIT OUTSIDE
A restaurant is under fire after customers said the owner won’t allow service dogs inside. Different customers on two occasions, two weeks apart, said the owner of Bombay Grill in Ogden refused to serve them if they sat inside with their dogs. Missy Warwood said she, her husband, 5-year-old son Jefferson and Jefferson’s service dog, Sage, tried to eat at Bombay Grill for her birthday at the end of May. She said Jefferson has Down syndrome and doesn’t speak. Sage, she said, is considered Jefferson’s medical equipment. “Out and about, Jefferson wanders and runs and doesn’t sit still,” she said, as her squirmy son started crawling into her lap. Sage keeps Jefferson safe and calm, she said, and allows them to live life normally in public. When they walked into Bombay Grill, she said the owner immediately turned them away and told them, “no dogs.” “We tried to educate him, and let him know that we have every right to be here. It’s my son’s service dog. He needs it,” Warwood said, recalling her conversation with the owner. “And he said, ‘No. It’s my opinion, it’s my restaurant. And I say, no dogs.'” They left the restaurant, then posted the ADA regulations online to the restaurant’s Facebook page, asking them to read up on the laws.
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