Susan Carpenter-McMillan (born 1949) is an American activist and writer and a self-styled "conservative feminist" and advocate for survivors of sexual assault.

Early life

Carpenter-McMillan was born and raised in Glendale, California by her parents Charles and Emma McMillan. Her father Charles was a real estate developer. She attended the University of Southern California and was a drama student there but she later dropped out and married Bill McMillan. Carpenter-McMillan worked at her mother's baby goods store to put her husband through law school.^[1]

Career

In the 1980s joined the antiabortion movement and was a representative for the Right to Life League of Southern California.^[2] She drew media attention when she campaigned to force the Loma Linda University Medical Center to provide a heart to a dying newborn. Carpenter-McMillan left the movement in 1990 alleging that the movement was filled with misogynists.^[3]

Carpenter-McMillan is an advocate of chemical castration and played a major role in the passage of the 1996 chemical castration law in California for multiple time sex offenders.^[4][5][6]

She served as a senior advisor to Paula Jones in the 1990s during her lawsuit against President Bill Clinton.^[7] She also served as her spokesperson and chaired Jones's legal fund. In 1997 Clinton was willing to settle the lawsuit that Jones brought against him for $700,000. Carpenter-McMillan advised Jones to reject Clinton's offer because the offer did not include an apology. Jones followed Carpenter-McMillan's advice, which contradicted the advice she received from her lawyers, Gilbert Davis and Joseph Cammarata. Jones eventually settled the case with Clinton for $850,000 and no apology.^{[8][9][10][11]}

In 2000 Carpenter-McMillan was not successful when she ran for the California State Assembly against Carol Liu.^[12][13][14]

Carpenter-McMillan was portrayed by Judith Light in Impeachment: American Crime Story.^[15][16]