Kentucky's 'child bride' bill stalls as groups fight to let 13-year-olds wed

[TomSea]

Kentucky's 'child bride' bill stalls as groups fight to let 13-year-olds wed
Deborah Yetter, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal
USA Today Network Published 6:51 a.m. ET March 3, 2018 | Updated 6:52 a.m. ET March 3, 2018

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A bill to make 18 the legal age for marriage in Kentucky has stalled in a Senate committee amid concerns about the rights of parents to allow children to wed at a younger age, according to several lawmakers.

Known as the "child bride" bill, Senate Bill 48 was pulled off the agenda just hours before a scheduled vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second time in two weeks.

"SO disappointed! My SB 48 (outlaw child marriage) won’t be called for a vote," sponsor  Julie Raque Adams, a Louisville Republican, said in a Tweet early Thursday. "It is disgusting that lobbying organizations would embrace kids marrying adults. We see evidence of parents who are addicted, abusive, neglectful pushing their children into predatory arms. Appalling."

Read more at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/03/03/kentuckys-child-bride-bill-stalls-groups-fight-let-13-year-olds-wed/391697002/

Huffington Post article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kentucky-bill-child-marriage_us_5a9acca4e4b0a0ba4ad3d03f

It's almost embarrassing to read HuffPo, it's like they are saying "look at these hicks".

[jmyrlefuller]

How can a child be married when they're too young to consent to consummating it?

[RoosGirl]

Huffington Post article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kentucky-bill-child-marriage_us_5a9acca4e4b0a0ba4ad3d03f

It's almost embarrassing to read HuffPo, it's like they are saying "look at these hicks".

I did not get the impression from the HoffPo article at all.

[240B]

Couldn't imagine that, married to a 13 year old child. Who would want to be married to a girl who only wants to go to the skating rink and hang out at McDonald's while on instagram. How is she going to cook, or clean the house, or get groceries, or pay the bills?


She's my wife but she's not old enough to drive? I would have to drop my 'wife' off to grade school every day. I'd have to make sure she takes a shower, and brushes her teeth, and that she goes to bed at bedtime. That would be super weird.


If I myself was 15 years old, at least it would make more sense. I would be able to relate. We could drive to school together. But as a Daddy, no way in the world I would be able to tolerate that.

[TomSea]

I did not get the impression from the HoffPo article at all.

@RoosGirl

I think the way the story starts out with saying Kentucky being 3rd in child marriages after Texas and Florida seems to set a tone but I could be wrong.  I think the article almost makes an effort to point out that these are all red or red-leaning states.

[kevindavis007]

I bet you those are the same people that complain about child marriages in the Islamic world.

[The_Reader_David]

How can a child be married when they're too young to consent to consummating it?

Age of consent laws are derivative from age of marriage laws in almost all jurisdictions, rather than the other way around.  Lots of "red states" have age of marriage = age of consent laws that recognize the biological reality that human beings are sexually mature in their early teens, some, as Kentucky currently, with earlier ages with parental consent.  The strange notion that 18 is a magical age at which one can suddenly consent to having sex is an enthusiasm that startedin the "blue" states.

[WingNot]

Any thing in there that excludes wedding your 13 y/o cousin?

[Restored]

Many of the child brides(< 16) were wed to much older men. All the cases I knew were Civil War veterans so they became "real wives" in the UDC. My neighbor in NC married her husband when she was 16 and he was a widower with children. It amounted to an arranged marriage. She dropped out of school and went to work on the farm. She got indoor plumbing in the 1980's.

[Sanguine]

Interesting story.  I was curious as to why Texas supposedly has such a high rate.  I came across a person testifying that she got married in 1983, and including this article, everything I found uses stats from the Tahirih Justice Center.  I find nothing other than that. I'll look at NHS information later.

[txradioguy]

How can a child be married when they're too young to consent to consummating it?

@jmyrlefuller if the groom is an adult then the parents can sign custody of the underage bride over to the groom.  I've seen it done that way before.