united-states marriage rape
How is it legal to marry and impregnate a female under the age of consent?
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB-BNlauWUs" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB-BNlauWUs</a></p>
<p>How is it legal to marry and impregnate a female under the age of consent? How can the guy not get arrested if he impregnated a female under the age of consent in the United States? Is there some kind of legal loophole that allows something like this to happen?</p>
<p><em>The video shows a short (47 sec) scene in which a young woman, said to be 14, is in  apparent pain while being treated by two medical caregivers (whether doctor or nurse or what is not stated nor obvious). She is accompanied by an older man, apparently in his late 40s or 50s. He is refereed to as &quot;Reverend&quot;  and says that he must be in another town at some distance to preach at a revival meeting the next day. It is said that the young woman had a &quot;spontaneous miscarriage&quot; the next day. As the caregivers examine her and ask her questions, she seems to look to the older man for permission to answer. At the end the caregivers refer to the woman as &quot;your daughter&quot; and the older man looks surprised and insistent and states that she is his wife, and the clip ends on that statement. It is not clear if this is part of a drama or a dramatized report of real events.</em></p>

<p>&quot;Age of consent&quot; is a legal meme that refers indirectly to different criminal statutes, for example in Missouri under <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/missouri/2017/title-xxxviii/chapter-566/section-566.034/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MO Rev Stat § 566.034</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A person commits the offense of statutory rape in the second degree if
being twenty-one years of age or older, he or she has sexual
intercourse with another person who is less than seventeen years of
age</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/missouri/2017/title-xxxviii/chapter-566/section-566.023/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">§023</a> also states that &quot;It shall be an affirmative defense to prosecutions under sections 566.032, 566.034, 566.062, 566.064, and 566.071, that the defendant was married to the victim at the time of the offense&quot;.</p>
<p><a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/missouri/2021/title-xxx/chapter-451/section-451-090/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">MO Rev Stat §451.090</a> allows marriage with parental permission to those aged 16 and 17 (by prohibiting licensing of marriage to those younger)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No recorder shall issue a license authorizing the marriage of any male
or female under sixteen years of age nor shall a license be issued
authorizing the marriage of any male or female twenty-one years of age
or older to a male or female under eighteen years of age.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Combining these legal parts, you get the result that a man may marry and impregnate a woman whom he could not legally have intercourse with (irrespective of pregnancy) were they not married. It just depends on what the specific law says.</p>
