[C]hild marriage, which activists describe as one or both parties entering a union while under age 18, remains legal in 37 US states. There are no federal laws against it, meaning minors can marry, with parental consent, before they can vote, drink, or buy lottery tickets in the majority of the country. Some states have a minimum marriage age on the books, which ranges from 15 to 18. Four states – California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Mississippi – do not specify any minimum age at all.
So the bride is 3, so what? She has liberty too you know.
In many states, statuatory rape is not a crime within marriage, creating a legal loophole that entices predators and increases the likelihood of sexual abuse. “Child marriage can be seen as a workaround for child rape,” said Fraidy Reiss, founder of Unchained at Last.
Or to put it more simply, child marriage is child rape. I think it’s pretty much always the female half of the equation who is the child.
So far this year, survivors have successfully campaigned to get child marriage taken off the books in three states, marking steady progress towards their goal of ending child marriage completely in the US by 2030. But, Reiss says, indifference is a challenge: “It’s been difficult to get legislators to pay attention to the issue and to take the simple, commonsense step of saying you have to be 18 to marry, the same way you have to be 18 to enter into almost any other contract.”
Advocates also face interference from a seemingly odd cohort: rightwing politicians who are using child marriage as ammunition in their war on reproductive rights, and left-leaning organizations who say they are defending the rights of young people by protecting the legality of child marriage.
Like the ACLU for instance? [scrolls down] Ah yes.
However, some secular organizations have argued against the coalition’s efforts: in California last year, local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood came out against a law that would have banned child marriage in the state. “They see it as a reproductive rights issue, that the ability to decide to get married is an issue of choice,” Syrett, the historian, said. The law did not pass because, according to the Los Angeles Times, these organizations exerted influence over Democratic lawmakers.
Well yes and the ability to drink a bottle of rum or smoke fentanyl or drive an SUV at 90 miles an hour down a city street is also an issue of choice. What’s your point? Children don’t get to make choices in all circumstances, because they’re children.
Comments
7 responses to “Before they can buy lottery tickets”
When I was 18 in Oklahoma, I had to get parental permission to get my wisdom teeth removed; I couldn’t do it until I was 21. Who knew all I had to do was marry the dentist?
Once more we see a law (or lack of a law) that allows men to exploit women (in this case, girls), and the ACLU and others are defending it.
Awesomecool defenders of the right to be raped.
Now, see, you all are looking at this wrong. The solution is to limit child marriage to two consenting persons under the age of 18.
See? What could go wrong?
It’s a little more complicated than “no age limit” in California:
(Emphasis added.)
https://www.sdcourt.ca.gov/sdcourt/juvenile3/juvenilemarriagelicenses3#:~:text=California%20law%20requires%20a%20person,the%20discretion%20of%20the%20court.
I had to check this, at least one case, Mississippi. It’s complicated, but.
Minimum age for marriage on your own say-so: male 21, female 21.
Minimum age for marriage with parental consent: male 17, female 15. (Mississippi is, I believe, the only state with different marriage ages for males and females.)
Judges (and possibly some clerks) can waive minimum age requirements. This is partly to allow teens between 15/17 and 21 to marry, but various sources do indicate this allows for children of any age to marry.
It used to be a defense (under 18 U.S.C. 2243) to the crime of statutory rape of a minor under the age of 16 years if the persons engaging in the sexual act were married to each other. The law has since been amended to remove this defense. A similar provision in the US Military Code appears to still be in force.
This may be the case elsewhere, that there isn’t a blanket legal statement that children of any age can marry (perhaps with parental permission), but that judges have the complete authority to override age limits. That is, they have a minimum age on the books, but judges (wink wink) can ignore that.
Lady M, Oklahoma also requires parental consent under 18. I don’t think it requires any of those other things, like counseling, just that the parents sign. I know a woman who got married at 16, and both parents had to sign permission.
As a point of interest (perhaps), in NZ the age of consent for sex is 16, but for marriage it is 18. Teens of 16 or 17 can get married with parental consent, but since 2018 have also required a court order (Minors (Court Consent to Relationships) Legislation Act 2018). This Act was specifically designed to combat situations of abuse, often with trafficking of mostly girls thrown in. The age of consent for marriage was raised from 12/13 to 16 in 1933. If you were under 21 you needed parental consent. The current age of marital consent wasn’t lowered to 18 until 2005! There’s some nuance around the edges in this, but it’s interesting how the sense of what is moral and appropriate changes over time and how reality and perception often seem to cross over. most people these days would be shocked at the thought of a 12 year old getting married in this country, yet many pine for the supposed morality of times gone by.