Minnesota's repeal of marital rape exemptions highlights existing legal loopholes

AEquitas’s data reports that a number of states have multiple forms of exemptions, but they describe the exemptions as generally falling into one of three categories.
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The third exemption relates to rare instances when one spouse has legal authority over another, including instances in which one spouse is granted custodial or guardianship power over the other.

Holly Fuhrman, an associate attorney and adviser at AEquitas, gave the hypothetical examples of a prison guard and an inmate, or a caregiver and someone in their care as situations that could fall into this exemption.

“The exemptions themselves are very complicated,” Fuhrman noted to ABC News.

Beyond the legal loopholes, Fuhrman said that a number of other aspects of the relationship between the couple could prevent the victim from seeking legal justice.

She said that marital rape “often happens in the context of a broader domestic violence relationship where there are dynamics of power and control at play.”