A woman by the name of Sherry Johnson was raped at the age of 8, got pregnant at the age of 10, and then was forced to marry her rapist at the age of 11. She had to drop out of all school and got very limited very quickly at a young age. She held back for years from sharing her story, and now 58, is getting on board and trying to stop child marriage in America. She is specifically trying to stop it in Florida. Last year, Texas and Virginia started a law that allowed no marriage below the age of 18. She says that when the bill passes, she want's everyone to see and hear about what happened. She grew up in Florida and was abused at a very young age. Her whole family got married very young, close to the same age she got married. When she tried to explain to people that she had gotten raped, they didn't believe her until she finally got examined and shown pregnant. When she was just 17, she was raising 6 children. She is working very hard to turn this situation upside down.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/29/health/ending-child-marriage-in-america/index.html
I think that it is crazy that somehow children and child marriages are legal because of exceptions that are able to be made through the law. I had never heard about this situation until now and I think it is very important to understand and be aware of these problems. This relates to APUSH because of the women that stood up for women's rights, like getting the 19th amendment ratified.
Olivia Wall
I hope that more states continue to pass child marriage restriction laws because that is not okay.
ReplyDeleteThis is so scary to hear. I agree that something needs to change in order to prevent things like this from happening.
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