Courts throughout the United States have recognized that the traditional rationales for spousal immunity from rape are no longer valid in modern society. State legislatures are also taking steps to abolish the marital rape exemption. Pennsylvania's 1984 spousal sexual assault law was an incomplete effort. Under the law, a spouse who lives in a separate residence, obtains a written separation agreement, or secures a court-imposed separation order prior to a spousal sexual attack can charge her spouse with rape. A 5-year statute of limitations applies to this offense. If a woman is living with her spouse at the time of the attack without a written separation agreement or a court order, the offender can only be charged with a form of assault, which carries significantly less severe sanctions than rape. Such an attack must be reported within 90 days of its occurrence. The law does not sufficiently deter or sanction husbands nor protect wives from the physical and psychological harm attending violent and coerced sexual abuse from their husbands. The Pennsylvania General Assembly should either repeal the law and apply Pennsylvania's rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse to all persons regardless of marital status or revise the existing law to make it identical to the rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse laws. 191 footnotes.