The system wasn't quite the same in the 1970s though. Before 2016, a girl of any age could marry a man of any age so long as she was having his baby. Men could get out of statutory rape charges just by marrying the victim. Such is the case here. A 13-year-old girl was impregnated by a man more than 20 years her senior and pushed into marriage by her parents, who insisted it was best for the baby. The story hit the news and became a national controversy, with the father of the baby advocating an extreme religious movement that states teen girls should marry older men. Our kidnapper, upon learning of the baby girl's birth, hatched a plan to kidnap her, believing it was best for both mother and baby. Indeed, the teen mom, now without her baby, no longer felt she had to remain in the unwanted marriage and ran away to her aunt and uncle, who made sure she finished her education. She publicly stated that she hoped whoever took her baby would take good care of her because she didn't know how. There is no question that her life was improved by not having the baby, whom she would probably have given up for adoption if she could have. Had the baby been returned to her father, he would have brought her up according to his beliefs, that girls should have a homeschool education focused on learning to be a wife and mother, then enter an arranged marriage with an older man at the youngest legal age. There is also the very real concern that a man who has a sexual interest in young girls might harm his own daughter. The kidnapper could not have gotten help from the authorities, because they would have returned the child to her father. While his ideology would disgust most of us, it was still perfectly legal. Of course there was nothing legal about the kidnapper's actions, but a modern jury might find her more sympathetic than the birth father and grandparents, particularly with the birth mother testifying that she believes it was for the best.

