Mon
Jun 19 2017
06:27 am
Minors getting married
By: bizgrrl  shortURL

Samantha Bee had a bit about minors getting married ("Fucked up but still legal") on her Full Frontal show last week.

After watching this segment, I thought I would check out the age of consent to marry in the 50 states. I was surprised to see that the majority of states (30) still have sixteen as the age of consent to marry. According to this web site, in Kansas and Massachusetts, with parental consent and/or the consent of a judge, males can marry at age fourteen and females at age twelve. Twelve? That's just creepy. Besides, why do they allow females to marry at an earlier age than males?

In most states a person can marry at an earlier age "by reason of pregnancy". Isn't that sweet? No.

Age of consent to marry

Eighteen - 11 states
--------------------------
Arizona
California
Delaware
Florida
Idaho
North Dakota
Oregon
Tennessee
Utah
Virginia
Wisconsin



continued...

Age of consent to marry

Seventeen - 9 states
--------------------------
Colorado
Illinois
Louisiana
Missouri
Nebraska
New Mexico
New York
Texas
Wyoming

Age of consent to marry

Sixteen - 30 states
--------------------------
Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Connecticut
Georgia
Hawaii
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Vermont
Washington
West Virginia

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Tamara Shepherd's picture

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Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Mon, 2017/06/19 - 12:48pm.

Via Planned Parenthood, here is each state's Parental Consent and Notification Laws (for purpose of a minor obtaining an abortion).

Excerpt of particular interest to us:

Tennessee

Your state requires that one of your parents give permission for your abortion. A judge can excuse you from this requirement.

Tamara Shepherd's picture

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Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Mon, 2017/06/19 - 1:00pm.

So in the related matter that is the subject of this thread, via Pew Research Center (November 2016), here are data on the incidence of child marriage in each state.

Nationally, nearly five in 1,000 girls ages 15 to 17 are married, the study says, but that rate varies by state.

Another excerpt of particular interest to us:

The rate of child marriage varies widely by state. It is most common in West Virginia and Texas, where about seven of every 1,000 15- to 17-year-olds were married in 2014. Several other states in the South and the West, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Nevada and California, also have above-average rates of child marriage.

A U. S. map part of this article depicts the Tennessee rate at 5.5 per 1,000 (higher than the national rate of 4.6) and the Texas rate at 6.9 per 1,000 (highest in the nation).

Texas, you'll recall, recently saw its state-level curtailment of abortion rights struck down by the SCOTUS.

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