In 2018, Kentucky lawmakers are finding it difficult to pass a bill to outlaw child marriages.

State Sen. Julie Raque Adams (R-Louisville) introduced Senate Bill 48 after she learned that Kentucky has the third-highest rate of child marriage in the country, just below Texas and Florida, according to Insider Louisville. From 2000 to 2015, more than 10,000 children were married in Kentucky, according to the Tahirih Justice Center.

Donna Pollard, a leading advocate for the bill, told the Courier-Journal that she was married at 16 to an older man who had sexually abused her since she was just 14. She said she was encouraged to marry by her mother, who had been wed at just 13 years old herself.

She described her former husband as a “perpetrator” who regularly abused her.

“I felt just completely and totally trapped,” said Pollard, who is now divorced.

RELATED: States by child marriages, 2000-2010

38 PHOTOS States by child marriages, 2000-2010 See Gallery States by child marriages, 2000-2010 New Hampshire Minors who married: 156 (Photo via Shutterstock) Delaware Minors who married: 200 (Photo via Getty Images) Vermont Minors who married: 207 (Photo via Shutterstock) South Dakota Minors who married: 231 (Photo via Shutterstock) Montana Minors who married: 405 (Photo via Getty Images) Hawaii Minors who married: 622 (Photo via Getty Images) South Dakota Minors who married: 647 (Photo via Getty Images) Alaska Minors who married: 654 (Photo via Getty Images) Nebraska Minors who married: 956 (Photo via Shutterstock) Connecticut Minors who married: 982 (Photo via Getty Images) Wyoming Minors who married: 1,030 (Photo via Getty Images) Massachusetts Minors who married: 1,050 (Photo via Getty Images) Iowa Minors who married: 1,081 (Photo via Getty Images) New Jersey Minors who married: 1,831 (Photo via Shutterstock) Wisconsin Minors who married: 2,488 (Photo via Getty Images) Kansas Minors who married: 2,503 (Photo via Getty Images) Maryland Minors who married: 2,677 (Photo via Getty Images) West Virginia Minors who married: 2,759 (Photo via Getty Images) Oregon Minors who married: 2,780 (Photo via Getty Images) Washington Minors who married: 3,336 (Photo via Getty Images) New York Minors who married: 3,850 (Photo by Michael Schmeling via Getty Images ) Idaho Minors who married: 4,083 (Photo via Getty Images) Colorado Minors who married: 4,154 (Photo via Getty Images) Ohio Minors who married: 4,177 (Photo via Getty Images) Mississippi Minors who married: 4,240 (Photo via Getty Images) Michigan Minors who married: 4,245 (Photo via Getty Images) Utah Minors who married: 4,386 (Photo via Getty Images) South Carolina Minors who married: 4,501 (Photo via Getty Images) Louisiana Minors who married: 4,532 (Photo via Getty Images) Missouri Minors who married: 6,262 (Photo via Getty Images) Illinois Minors who married: 6,328 (Photo via Getty Images) Virginia Minors who married: 6,775 (Photo via Getty Images) Arkansas Minors who married: 7,019 (Photo via Getty Images) Tennessee Minors who married: 7,670 (Photo via Getty Images) Alabama Minors who married: 7,688 (Photo via Getty Images) Kentucky Minors who married: 11,657 (Photo via Getty Images) Florida Minors who married: 14,278 (Photo via Getty Images) Texas Minors who married: 34,793 (Photo via Getty Images) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE

The so-called “child bride” legislation would ban marriage for anyone under age 17 and require judicial approval for a 17-year-old to wed. Under current law, 16- and 17-year-olds can marry with parental permission, and children can marry even younger when there’s a pregnancy involved, Insider Louisville explains.

Passage of the bill would seem easy enough. But late Wednesday, Adams tweeted that a vote on the legislation had been stalled. She told Insider Louisville that the Family Foundation of Kentucky, a conservative group that lobbies on social issues, had put a stop to it.

Eileen Recktenwald, the executive director of the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, also expressed her disgust.

“This is legalized rape of children,” Recktenwald told the Courier-Journal. “We cannot allow that to continue in Kentucky, and I cannot believe we are even debating this in the year 2018 in the United States.”

The Family Foundation of Kentucky argued that the bill “diminishes parental rights,” Insider Louisville reported.

“It takes away parental rights, in terms of parental consent, and gives it to the court,” foundation spokesman Martin Cothran told the news outlet. “So we have a big concern about that.”

Adams said she and other lawmakers are now working on a compromise bill. Cothran said concerns about the legislation should be “easily resolved.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.

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