@Lanolin, oh,it gets worse.
"Marital rape became a crime nationwide in all 50 U.S. states on July 5, 1993. "
This document provides an overview of the research on marital rape including a brief legal history of marital rape; discussion of its occurrence; summary of the effects; and an analysis of practitionersí intervention with marital rape survivors.
vawnet.org
"By 1920, the legal doctrine allowing a husband to beat his wife was formally rejected across all U.S. states."
"True systemic protection and criminal enforcement for domestic violence victims did not become widespread until the feminist and domestic violence shelter movements of the 1970s and 1980s."
"Courts and state legislatures began formally rescinding a husband's right to physically chastise his wife in the 1870s and 1880s, with states like Alabama and Massachusetts in 1871 and Maryland in 1882 passing explicit prohibitions."
There's more,but that's bad enough.