Child Marriages in the US

[Romero]

When she was a scrawny 11-year-old, Sherry Johnson found out one day that she was about to be married to a 20-year-old member of her church who had raped her.



"It was forced on me," she recalls. She had become pregnant, she says, and child welfare authorities were investigating — so her family and church officials decided the simplest way to avoid a messy criminal case was to organize a wedding.



"My mom asked me if I wanted to get married, and I said, 'I don't know, what is marriage, how do I act like a wife?'" Johnson remembers today, many years later. "She said, 'Well, I guess you're just going to get married.'"



Johnson, the former 11-year-old unwitting bride who is now fighting for Florida to set a minimum marriage age (there is none now), says that her family attended a conservative Pentecostal church and that other girls of a similar age periodically also married. Often, she says, this was to hide rapes by church elders.



She says she was raped by both a minister and a parishioner and gave birth to a daughter when she was just 10 (the birth certificate confirms that). A judge approved the marriage to end the rape investigation, she says, telling her, "What we want is for you to get married."



In fact, more than 167,000 young people age 17 and under married in 38 states between 2000 and 2010, according to a search of available marriage license data by a group called Unchained at Last, which aims to ban child marriage. The search turned up cases of 12-year-old girls married in Alaska, Louisiana and South Carolina, while other states simply had categories of "14 and younger."



Unchained at Last was not able to get data for the other states. But it extrapolated that in the entire country, there were almost 250,000 child marriages between 2000 and 2010. Some backing for that estimate comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, which says that at least 57,800 Americans age 15 to 17 reported being in marriages in 2014.



https://whyevolutionistrue.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/screen-shot-2017-05-28-at-12-14-51-pm.png">



https://whyevolutionistrue.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/screen-shot-2017-05-28-at-12-19-11-pm.png">



https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/opinion/sunday/it-was-forced-on-me-child-marriage-in-the-us.html">//https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/opinion/sunday/it-was-forced-on-me-child-marriage-in-the-us.html

Hard to believe in the US in the 21st century, eh? In Canada the legal age is 18, 16 under certain circumstances with parents' consent.

[RW]

We were just talking about this.  Some of these marriages are a religious push for dealing with pregnancies.



It's sickening.

[Odinson]

I dont think they allow 9year olds marry 50year olds though..

[Anonymous]

There's no such thing as child marriages..



Let's call it what it is, it's the sexual slavery of children by pa*dophiles.

[RW]

There's no such thing as child marriages..



Let's call it what it is, it's the sexual slavery of children by pa*dophiles.

When you look at the cases, a good number of them are young people marrying each other because they had a romp, ended up pregnant, and their religious parents insisted on no children out of wedlock.  There are definitely some cases that are as you speak.



It should be that you cannot marry until 18 years old.  Period.

[Anonymous]

There's no such thing as child marriages..



Let's call it what it is, it's the sexual slavery of children by pa*dophiles.

When you look at the cases, a good number of them are young people marrying each other because they had a romp, ended up pregnant, and their religious parents insisted on no children out of wedlock.  There are definitely some cases that are as you speak.



It should be that you cannot marry until 18 years old.  Period.

I actually wasn't referring to that which I know happens..



I was thinking of young girls being forced to marry much older men..



Like in Bountiful BC which is not that far from where you live.

[RW]

There's no such thing as child marriages..



Let's call it what it is, it's the sexual slavery of children by pa*dophiles.

When you look at the cases, a good number of them are young people marrying each other because they had a romp, ended up pregnant, and their religious parents insisted on no children out of wedlock.  There are definitely some cases that are as you speak.



It should be that you cannot marry until 18 years old.  Period.

I actually wasn't referring to that which I know happens..



I was thinking of young girls being forced to marry much older men..



Like in Bountiful BC which is not that far from where you live.

We see the women around here sometimes.  It's like they aren't even people.

[Anonymous]

There's no such thing as child marriages..



Let's call it what it is, it's the sexual slavery of children by pa*dophiles.

When you look at the cases, a good number of them are young people marrying each other because they had a romp, ended up pregnant, and their religious parents insisted on no children out of wedlock.  There are definitely some cases that are as you speak.



It should be that you cannot marry until 18 years old.  Period.

I actually wasn't referring to that which I know happens..



I was thinking of young girls being forced to marry much older men..



Like in Bountiful BC which is not that far from where you live.

We see the women around here sometimes. It's like they aren't even people.

Can you explain please?

[Anonymous]

There's no such thing as child marriages..



Let's call it what it is, it's the sexual slavery of children by pa*dophiles.

When you look at the cases, a good number of them are young people marrying each other because they had a romp, ended up pregnant, and their religious parents insisted on no children out of wedlock.  There are definitely some cases that are as you speak.



It should be that you cannot marry until 18 years old.  Period.

I actually wasn't referring to that which I know happens..



I was thinking of young girls being forced to marry much older men..



Like in Bountiful BC which is not that far from where you live.

We see the women around here sometimes. It's like they aren't even people.

Can you explain please?

They are brainwashed zombies.

[Anonymous]

There's no such thing as child marriages..



Let's call it what it is, it's the sexual slavery of children by pa*dophiles.

When you look at the cases, a good number of them are young people marrying each other because they had a romp, ended up pregnant, and their religious parents insisted on no children out of wedlock.  There are definitely some cases that are as you speak.



It should be that you cannot marry until 18 years old.  Period.

I actually wasn't referring to that which I know happens..



I was thinking of young girls being forced to marry much older men..



Like in Bountiful BC which is not that far from where you live.

We see the women around here sometimes. It's like they aren't even people.

Can you explain please?

They are brainwashed zombies.

I saw a program about them on W5.