The Detroit Free Press: Opinion: Child marriage is legal in Michigan. That has to change.
First let's start off by saying the headline and opinion is as one might suspect, misleading. Michigan doesn't allow "child" marriages if by child you mean little children, indeed, that has been banned since 1887. Funny how the Democrat Rep in her op-ed fails to disclose that relevant and important fact that has a bearing on the discussion, neh?
But, current law does allow 16 year olds and 17 year olds to marry with parental consent or 18 year olds to do so on their own without consent, because we have a charming notion that 18 year olds are adults, sort of. That is what this Democrat representative is against.
Of course in the gun death stats, Democrats declare 19-year-olds are children so there's that.
So as one would imagine this op ed is an opportunity to try and dunk on the Republicans for not agreeing to the change (along with a lot of other junk in her bill as a reason for not passing it) while implying they are for "child" marriage.
Then again, given the Democrats dominate the government right now they could pass such a ban if they wanted to, but they clearly do not really want to do so, and would rather make hay with the Republican's objection to the change (and the other lousy parts of the proposed bill) and claim this is about child marriage.
Now, I do believe that in this day and age, given the maturity of today's teenagers, 16 for most is too young to get married. This 16-plus-parental-consent law is a carry-over from days gone by when there was both a need for such, and kids grew up a lot faster and weren't as infantalized as they are today. Now, some 16-year-olds may indeed be mature enough to be married and there's a current safety valve to allow such. In short, there's no evidence this law is actually causing a problem.
But, remember, according to Michigan Democrats, a "child" should be able to have an abortion at any age without parental knowledge, much less parental consent. Also, according to Michigan Democrats a "child" should be able to have surgery to change their gender at any age without parental knowledge, much less consent.But, to allow a 16- or 17-year-old to marry with parental consent? Well, for the Democrats, that's just going too far and must be stopped.
3 comments:
In 1979, I was 19 years old and had been working in a foundry for over a year. I owned a house, which I was renting out to a friend and his wife. I lived with my parents, with their blessing. My girlfriend was a junior in high school, we had been dating for a couple of years.
The plain facts are that she was 16 and got pregnant. Her parents allowed her and I to get married, and we moved into an apartment that my parents owned. We stayed there until we were in a serious car accident where I broke my back and pelvis. We moved back in with my parents, who helped take care of our daughter, while my now ex wife continued on getting her high school diploma.
We stayed married for 11 years, at which time she asked for a divorce. I did not want a divorce, but these things happen. I worked in the foundry for over 35 years, to support my 3 kids from that first marriage and the 2 adopted kids with my present wife of over 30 years. My ex wife and her current husband moved to Kentucky with my youngest for his job, she attended college and eventually got a masters degree in counselling.
Could you use my experience to say that getting married young like we did results in divorce? I can't say. A lot of older couples get married and don't last 11 years. What I can say is that I fully expected when we married to grow old with her, and until the divorce was final, still expected that. I feel fortunate that I found someone who feels that way now, and we have a pretty good run going.
As for the politics of it, and what is the right answer, I think that it is probably best to leave it alone, and look at it on a case to case basis, the way that it seems to have been done in the past. When the government attempts to legislate morality it usually ends up making a mess of things.
The 'key' word is marriage... sigh
pigpen51: Given that around 50% of all marriages now end in divorce can't say that your experience ending in divorcee indicates it one way or the other as to marrying young.
It seems Democrats would have preferred you left her to be a single mother rather than being responsible and creating a family. Again, while 16 seems pretty young to me for teens to get married now, there are always exceptions and their proposal of a blanket prohibition on it is the wrong answer.
Old NFO: Yep, they're not much for marriage or families - not enough government dependence when those are working.
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