A woman from Florida has claimed she was forced to marry her rapist at age 11. Sherry Johnson says she was raped four times by members of her family’s church congregation as a child. As a result, she became pregnant at age 10. When investigators began looking into her case, she claims her family tried to protect her rapist by forcing her to marry him. Read more New Jersey refuses to ban child marriage outright “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?’” Ms Johnson told The New York Times. “She said, ‘Well, I guess you’re just going to get married.’” Florida is one of 27 US states that permits children of any age to be married with their parents’ permission. Ms Johnson says her marriage kept her from attending school regularly. Instead, she took care of their children – she gave birth to nine in total – and fought with her husband over finances. “It was a terrible life,” Ms Johnson said. The marriage eventually dissolved, as most underage marriages do. Ms Johnson later wrote a book about her story, called “Forgiving the Unforgivable”. The story inspired Florida state Representative Cynthia Stafford to sponsor a bill outlawing child marriage in Florida. "Marriage is an adult responsibility," Ms Stafford said. "We don't want them to vote, we don't want them to drink alcohol, they can't drive a car, and we allow them to marry under 16?" Both Ms Stafford’s legislation and a matching Senate bill died in committee. A similar law was shot down by the New Hampshire state legislature this year. Believe it or not, there is still a lot of political resistance to changing laws on child marriage in America https://t.co/nXHHsBpOFVpic.twitter.com/aFG1xU71jB — NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) May 27, 2017
