While Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader Branville McCartney has said he would not support a Marital Rape Bill, he said yesterday that if the DNA wins the next election, it would make amendments to the Sexual Offenses Act, seeking to protect women from violence.
The DNA held a focus group on the issue of marital rape at the British Colonial Hilton yesterday with members of the church and prominent female leaders in the community, including Dr. Sandra Dean-Patterson, director of the Bahamas Crisis Centre.
"This discourse does not represent a U-turn or a reversal of opinion, but instead a more informed decision in the best interest of all Bahamians," McCartney said.
"We don't believe that a man should rape or abuse in any way, a woman. But we also believe in the sanctity of marriage."
By adding more teeth to the Sexual Offenses Act, women would be protected, and authorities would be able to prosecute people who abuse their spouses, McCartney said.
"Women should receive complete equality and be afforded every civil and legal right afforded men," he said.
Last week, McCartney, who appeared on the JCN program Citizen's Review with Erin Ferguson, came under fire after saying a DNA government would not support a Marital Rape Bill.
Ferguson noted yesterday that he and McCartney were not talking about the Martial Rape Bill specifically.
"We were talking about the concept of being able to rape your spouse, period," Ferguson said.
Marital rape was not something McCartney supported, Ferguson said.
In 2009, Minister of State for Social Development Loretta Butler-Turner tabled a Marital Rape Bill in the House of Assembly.
Under the bill, marital rape would have been criminalized entirely. This would have meant that a spouse could be sentenced up to life in prison for the rape of a spouse, even on a first offense, as is the case for others convicted of rape.
Furthermore, the bill sought to expand the amount of time allowed to commence prosecution of summary sexual offenses from six months to up to two years.
There was great uproar in certain quarters after the bill was introduced with some religious leaders suggesting that the government was seeking to interfere in marriages.
The controversy eventually led to the government shelving the bill.
Butler-Turner has since stated that if the FNM is reelected, she would push for the bill to be reintroduced.

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