Men in North Carolina can still legally rape a woman if she withdraws consent during intercourse

Men in North Carolina can still legally rape a woman if she withdraws consent during intercourse.

A loophole in the US state's law says that consent cannot be revoked once it is given, meaning that men are legally allowed to finish sex even if a woman asks them to stop. Similarly, if the intercourse becomes violent, a woman has no right to tell the man to stop. Women's rights activists in North Carolina have been campaigning to erase the loophole from NC law for many years. Broadly reports that a bill has been filed to change the law but that traction has been slow. The bill, which is likely to be postponed, states that:

"A person may withdraw consent to engage in vaginal intercourse in the middle of the intercourse, even if the actual penetration is accomplished with consent and even if there is only one act of vaginal intercourse."

North Carolina is the only US state where a woman cannot legally withdraw consent after intercourse has begun. However, the majority of states recognise this issue of consent as a "grey area" with only eight stating that a woman has a legal right to revoke consent at any stage of sexual intercourse. Last year, the Guardian reported that a rape victim had to confirm whether her attacker stopped and started penetrating her between revoking consent for her attack to be considered a rape.