Child marriage is legal in 43 states, according to a recent tally by The Washington Post, and in seven of these there’s no minimum age at all. Where procedural restrictions are imposed in states that allow child marriage, it’s usually only that the child receive permission from a parent (or, in some cases, a judge). All told, nearly 300,000 minor children (again, mostly girls) were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018, according to the group Unchained At Last, which seeks to abolish child marriage. Most were 16 or 17, but a few were as young as 10, and about 20 percent were below the age of consent in the state where the marriage was recorded.
Defending child marriage is, of course, a handy way for Republicans to wage class warfare on behalf of rural low-income whites. Soon after a child-marriage ban passed the West Virginia House of Delegates earlier this month, it got killed in a state Senate committee. Republican state Senator Mike Stewart, who voted against the ban, explained that his mother was 16 when she married his father, “and six months later I came along.” Bills to abolish child marriage are pending in 12 states, including, surprisingly, California and, less surprisingly, Texas.
Until last month, one of the states with no minimum age for marriage was Wyoming. The state just passed a law eliminating child marriage altogether, i.e., requiring anyone who gets married to be at least 18. Republicans have a supermajority in Wyoming, so bully for them. But the Wyoming Republican Party campaigned against the bill, warning voters that it would compromise parental rights. “Marriage is the only institution in Wyoming Statute designed to keep a child’s father and mother living under the same roof,” one mailing said, “and cooperating in the raising of any children that they, together, conceive. That is the NATURAL RIGHT of every child.”
Mestoph on March 22nd, 2023 at 14:02 UTC »
The list of people that Republicans HAVEN’T declared war on is far shorter at this point
OppositeDifference on March 22nd, 2023 at 13:55 UTC »
This year the Republican party has been really effective at showing us our vision for the country. Based on their legislative attempts, what they want is for the average person to be born into a subsistence lifestyle where their parents can't afford basic necessities like healthcare, then get educated in a carefully walled garden that discourages independent thought. Before graduating from "school" they will get married and probably get pregnant with a child they're unprepared for and are forced to carry to term. This will really get in the way of their job at the factory, which will fire them because there's no worker protections.
Then they'll turn 18 a handful of years later.
thenewrepublic on March 22nd, 2023 at 13:46 UTC »
The same Republican Party that promotes (and, on occasion, legislates) book bans to protect Our Kids is perfectly fine with having Our Kids clean slaughterhouses overnight or marry at puberty.