Defending Marriage in Arkansas — You can Now Marry a Three Year Old
Arkansas tried to strengthen the institution of marriage by cutting down on marriages among those under 18. they tried to outlaw them. Of course, they screwed up, making it possible for one to marry a three year old. Indeed, their law should be called the law of unintended consequences.
Nah, this isn’t a DOMA law, but rather a law intended to keep kids from marrying too soon. But they screwed up. You see, they wanted to make an exception, itself sort of idiotic. They wanted first to make 18 the minimum age for marriage, but if a girl got pregnant, and her parents approved, then she could also be allowed to get married. (No word on whether she was only allowed to marry the prospective father, nor whther he had to still be at least 18.) The problem? They included one too many words, and the one in question was “not.” And that “not” really blew it open. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The marriage-age law, which took effect July 31, was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry while also allowing pregnant minors to marry with parental consent. An extraneous not in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it.
The bill reads: “In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage license, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage.”
Some lawmakers have said that the way the law is written could invite pedophiles to Arkansas to try to marry children.
Is this Republican incompetence? Democrat incompetence? Or is it a lesson to those (Radical Rightwing Christians, perhaps?) who try to legislate morality, rather than empowering parents to raise children well. I’ll take the latter for $1000, Alex.
But isn’t it a stupid law as intended? If a girl really, really wants to marry, at 14 years of age or so, then what does she do? According to the law as it is intended, she needs to get pregnant and then convince her parents to give permission to marry. Umm, isn’t that an incentive for a teen to get pregnant?
Yikes…
it doesn’t really sound like much of a change, to me, i had a cousin who got pregnant at 12, and married at 13, abt 20 yrs ago. her husband was 19, as i recall. btw, 17 is still the legal age of consent here, not 18. used to be 16, until the mid-80’s or so.