Disturbing Loopholes

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “child bride” or “child marriage?” Do you think of a far-off, poor, desolate country, completely unlike yours and your community? The unfortunate reality is, child marriage happens in the majority of the world, and has historically and disproportionately been an issue which affects young girls.

For instance, in the United States, there are currently only four states that have banned child marriage outright: Delaware (2018), New Jersey (2018), Pennsylvania (2020), and Minnesota (2020). The remaining forty-six states allow for the marriage of a person under eighteen in various circumstances. In fact, it is estimated that over fifty percent of countries allow child marriage in some form, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada.

So why is this? Why are these supposedly developed countries allowing children to get married? Courts and legislatures in the United States defend child marriage by claiming that it is in the public interest to allow individuals to live as a family unit and claim that these laws are beneficial to child support enforcement procedures. In other words, law makers justify child marriage exemptions by saying these laws are meant to allow teenagers who are expecting a child to get married and live as a family unit. However, these laws have historically been drafted so that they have had the practical effect of sheltering child abusers from the legal consequences of their actions.

Specifically, prior to 2018 virtually all states had laws that would allow a pregnant minor to marry an adult man without any restrictions on the age of the man. This disturbing loophole essentially legalized pedophilia, by allowing an adult man to escape criminal charges by marrying the young girl he victimized. Even more disturbing than the law itself, is that parents would consent to their young daughters marrying these adult men, usually either because the man was a respected member of the community, or because of the societal and communal pressures.

For example, Sherry Johnson is a former child bride who is now an advocate for ending child marriage. The public outcry over Johnson’s story, which was exacerbated because of Florida’s lax public records laws, was the catalyst which led to Florida revising their child marriage laws in 2018. Prior to 2018, the law in Florida allowed for sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds to get married with their parent’s permission and had no minimum age if the child was pregnant and had the consent of a County court judge.

Johnson was only eleven years old in 1971 when she was married to her first husband, Alfonsa Tolbert, who was twenty in Tampa, Florida. Tolbert had been a deacon at the church where the Johnson family lived and had begun abusing Johnson as early as nine years old. By ten, Johnson was pregnant with her first child. Johnson had six children with Tolbert by the time she was seventeen and had to drop out of high school after the ninth grade to care for them. When she was seventeen, Johnson sought help from the Legal Aide Society and was able to obtain a divorce.

Unfortunately, Johnson’s story is not uncommon, especially in tight-knit, conservative and religious communities. Even sadder still is that many of these girls wind up being trapped cycles of both abuse and poverty with very little means of escape. There is some hope on the horizon, but more awareness needs to be raised in order to truly affect change. There are several organizations dedicated to ending child marriage including UNFPA-UNICEF, Unchained at Last, Girls Not Brides, and many more. If you are concerned about ending child marriage, please consider assisting a local organization lobby for change, or contact your elected officials directly and ask them what they plan to do to end child marriage in your hometown.