One day after its defeat in the committee, the state senate revived a bill on Thursday to prohibit minors from getting married in West Virginia.
Although the change of heart didn’t guarantee the bill’s passage, several senators gave impassioned speeches defending the right of teenagers in love to marry.
As of last week, the bill was approved by the house of delegates. On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the bill without discussion. By Thursday, the Senate approved a motion filed by Republican Sen. Charles Trump of Morgan County to remove the bill from committee and give it a second reading.
During its final reading Friday, the Senate will have the opportunity to amend the bill.
Children can currently marry as young as 16 with parental consent in West Virginia, but anyone younger must also get a judge’s waiver.
It has been estimated that there has been over 3,600 marriages involving one or more children in Kanawha County since 2000, according to Democratic delegate Kayla Young.
Attorney and Democratic senator Mike Woelfel claimed to have represented a girl who was in the eighth grade when she got married and divorced.
According to Woelfel, he is concerned that older men court young girls, “and the next thing you know, some young girl has convinced her parents to let her get married.”
“What we have here is a good bill because it does recognize that we aren’t in the 1950s or ’60s,” Woelfel said. “I think we’re moving into the modern era with this.”
Senator Mike Stuart, a Republican from Kanawha County and a former federal prosecutor, said he supports the age of 16 for marriage. He says his parents were married at 16 almost 50 years ago, and “are still giddy teenagers” today.
Sen. Eric Tarr of Putnam County, a Republican, stated that although he got married in high school, he understood the need for the bill to address concerns.
“Knowing what it means to be two mature high school students in love and getting married and creating a life together, that’s a family born and a family that stays together,” Tarr said. “I think every one of us in this chamber values that and understands that.”
By establishing 18 as the legal age for consent, the bill eliminates the possibility of minors obtaining consent through their parents, guardians, or through court proceedings. Existing legal marriages in other states would not be affected by the law.
Since 2018, seven states have made the legal age of marriage 18 or older, according to the nonprofit organization Unchained At Last, which works to stop child and forced marriage.
Pew Research Center reports that West Virginia had the highest rate of child marriages among states in 2014, with 7.1 marriages per 1,000 teens ages 15-17.
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