Childhood should have been a carefree and innocent age, but 11-year-old Shirley Jonson has become a mother. If something like this happened in China, the next step would be for the girl's parents to call the police, and the police would be dispatched to catch the scumbag and make the scumbag pay the price of his actions in jail. But in the United States, which bills itself as a "beacon of human rights", a rapist can become a girl's "legal" husband. Do you dare to imagine such a thing?
was in elementary school, and 10-year-old Shirley Johnson was found to be seven months pregnant. The teacher notified Shirley's parents, but they did not call the police after taking Shirley home. A few months later, Jonson married the deacon who raped her. This was the beginning of her nightmare. Shirley, who was only in fifth grade, had to wash diapers after returning home from school. By the age of 16, she had become a mother of six children. Shirley's childhood was shrouded in nightmares. "The rapist should have been handcuffed, but I was handcuffed instead." Shirley cried every day, but no one could help her.
Coincidentally, April Kelly was also forced to marry a man who was 7 years older than her when she was 15 years old. After the marriage, April was still in school, but her husband would forcefully take her home during lunch break and have sex with her. According to April, "(child marriage) is completely sexual assault, legal rape. I was raped every night." Until her husband's father began to molest her, April couldn't bear it anymore, and she escaped. From 2000 to 2018, 300,000 children in the United States were forced to accept "legal marriage", and the birth rate of minors was as high as 6%.
In the "Convention on the Rights of the Child" issued by the United Nations , it is stipulated that "children" refer to minors under the age of 18, and "child marriage" refers to the marriage of minors under the age of 18. This regulation is recognized by 196 countries around the world, but the United States rejects it. The standard for classifying children in the United States is under the age of 13, so in the United States, child marriage does not count after the age of 13, at least according to the laws and regulations of 44 states in the United States. There are only 6 states in the United States that completely prohibit marriage for people under the age of 18. The remaining states also have regulations on the age of marriage, but basically it is between 15 and 17 years old. As long as parents and guardians agree, you can legally get married. However, 9 states, including California and Massachusetts , have no age limit for marriage. Children as young as eleven or twelve can also get married under "special conditions."
In some states, pregnancy is a necessary condition for marriage of a minor child. What is even more unfortunate is that abortion is prohibited in these states. Under such comprehensive conditions, rapists are given opportunities. Especially for underage girls who are younger and have no ability to distinguish, they are easily seduced and raped, and eventually marry the rapist due to the "face" of their parents. This is the case for Shirley Jonson and April Kelly mentioned above. "Pregnancy" is a passport for child marriage and an asylum card for criminals.
It is also very difficult for victims to escape. According to a survey by the American Anti-Child Marriage Organization, since 2000, more than 60,000 minors' marriage certificates have become rapists' "free cards." The criminal who should have been punished instead became the victim's "husband", pushing the victim directly into a deeper abyss. What's even worse is that divorce in the United States requires a divorce agreement, but the United States believes that minors do not have the right to sign an agreement and require a guardian to sign on their behalf. The guardians of these minors who were forced into marriage have been transformed from parents into husbands of the victims, but will the husbands agree to divorce?
