North Carolina Creates Law Prohibiting Women From “Backing Out” of Sex Once Initiated

No apparently doesn’t mean no in the state of North Carolina, and it’s been that way for almost 40 years now.

According to the 1979 North Carolina Supreme Court case State v. Way, women cannot revoke consent after sexual intercourse begins. Even if the man forces the woman to have sex, he cannot be charged with rape if she changes her mind.

Democratic state senator Jeff Jackson is working to change that. Jackson has reportedly said that many women have approached about cases in which they changed their mind about for sex, the men forced them to have sex but cannot be charged because of the law.

One of those women was 19-year-old Aaliyah Palmer, who was pulled into a bathroom to have sex with a man at a party. She was willing initially but changed her mind. She told Fayetteville police that she changed her mind when the sex turned violent. She told the man to stop, but we wouldn’t listen and continued with the act.

Palmer felt as if she was raped, but under North Carolina law, the man couldn’t be charged with rape because she wanted to back out of sex once it started.

“It’s really stupid,” Palmer told the Fayetteville Observer of the law. “If I tell you no and you kept going, that’s rape.”

“Legislators are hearing more and more about women who have been raped and are being denied justice because of this crazy loophole,” Jackson told the Fayetteville Observer. “North Carolina is the only state in U.S. where no doesn’t mean no.”

Jackson introduced Senate Bill 553, which would criminalize men to continue intercourse with a woman who had changed her mind.