IMAGINE THIS:
You have a daughter named Jenny. She is in love with Harold and wants to get married. Harold is 24. Jenny is 16.
If that’s not enough to cause an influx of gray hairs, Jenny is pregnant.
Of course, you say no to a quickie marriage, affirm the family will work together to get through the kerfuffle, and make sure the baby has a good, stable home. But due to a nasty divorce, your ex-wife, let’s call her Helen, who has sole custody of Jenny, likes Harold and likes that he is working and has ambition, agrees to the marriage. And, Helen, who is not adverse to being footloose and single at this point in her life, is bustling around her home humming Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March”.
No way that is going to happen, right?
Not so fast.
According to a family law internet site, states define 16, 17 or 18 as the legal age in which a person can marry in the U.S. (Nebraska is the sole state with 19 as legal age of consent.) Globally, the average legal age to get married is 17 for boys and 16 for girls; in Iran, girls as young as nine can become wives and in China, men cannot be married before age 22.
In many southern states, the age of consent is 18. But most states have exceptions that allow males and females as young as 16 to marry; parental consent is required below 16; if younger than 16, a court order is required.
This topic became interesting after watching several episodes involving polygamy is cults in Utah and Arizona. “Escaping Polygamy” is the pseudo-reality show about three young former-cult members (and their two “investigators”) who have made it their life’s work to help other young girls escape the life of being one of multiple wives, some of whom were as young as 12.
According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, between the years 2000 and 2010, more than 167,000 underage girls, some as young as 12, were married to boys/men 18 or older.
This practice is abominable, especially with all the research and data on the adverse effects on a woman’s health, education, and the increased likelihood of domestic violence.
There are many questions surrounding this issue. Why, then, is it not addressed in the legislatures of the states? Do lawmakers feel that marriage is the best alternative to an unexpected pregnancy in children? Or, is it a religious freedom or cultural issue?
Is it a regional or national disgrace in that between 2000-2010 that children 12 years old were legally married in Alaska, North Carolina and Louisiana?
An occasional topic of talk shows and news programs is the global problem of sex trafficking. It is not an urban myth that tens of thousands of underage girls are kidnapped or are runaways who are forced into the sex industry.
The black-and-white way of looking at the world and its myriad problems – “That’s right and that’s wrong!” – does not see a lot of difference in sex trafficking and “forcing” or even allowing girls as young as 12 to marry. In either situation, happiness is seldom an element to be considered.
A young child running away to escape a forced marriage is considered a runaway and more often than not, is returned to the family from which she/he is fleeing.
Facts? You want facts? If you are one who loves statistics, American girls who marry at 18 or younger face a 23 percent higher risk of heart attack, cancer and/or stroke than do women who marry between ages 19 and 25. Those same women are three times more like to be a victim of domestic battery than those that marry at an older age.
Ending child marriage should be easy. Legislatures could pass laws that prohibit the marriage of anyone under 18, with no exceptions. It’s old-school and wrong-headed thinking to say, “She’s pregnant, she needs to get married,” when the “she” is 16 or younger.
Legislatures have the power to end child marriage. But, being the “which way in the wind blowing” elected plutocratic minions, they have no reason to act unless there is an outcry from their constituents to act to end this outdated and abominable practice.
Call or email your state and federal officials today. It’s the only way to end this practice and save countless young girls from a life of misery.
What about the mothers?
Closer to home, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was on national TV this week and boasted about being devoted to the “sanctity of life”. But she didn’t have an answer for her state’s problems with infant and maternal mortality.
Sanders raved about the Republican Party’s devotion to “sanctity of life,” and prioritizing alternatives to abortion, such as foster care and adoption; she touted her own efforts to increase “the quality of life.”
Her rhetoric does not match up with the statistics. Like many so-called “pro-life” states, Arkansas, and neighboring states Texas and Louisiana, suffers from high mortality rate for mothers as well as in the category of pre-term births.
Sanders’ stated goal is to become “the most pro-life state in the union.” Mothers and their babies are apparently secondary consideration to her stated political agenda.
George Smith views the world from the back porch Bedspring Ridge, a dogtrot house he built in Sutton, Arkansas on old family land on a spot where his great-grandfather’s house once stood. There he lives and opines with his wife BobbieJean and a rescue dog, “Li’l Dawg.” A former newspaper reporter, editor and publisher, he has a master’s degree in business, is a retired director for a global technology company, has been a business owner, student of government and the behavior of politicians. He has been a college instructor, national motivational speaker, community development and festival development consultant and is a published author.