Opinion: Child marriage is legal in Michigan. That has to change.
No one is in greater need of protection than our children, and nothing is more frustrating and disheartening than when extremism interferes with our ability to achieve this important mission.
Believe it or not, child marriage is still legal in Michigan. Between 2000 and 2021, more than 5,400 minors were married in Michigan, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Unchained at Last. As other states pass commonsense prohibitions against child marriage, Michigan becomes only more attractive to human traffickers looking to exploit our lax laws.
State Sen. Sarah Anthony introduced bills to ban child marriage three times when she served in the Michigan House. Each time, the Republican-controlled House refused to pass her bills out of committee, and put them up for a vote, because they contained no exceptions for those whose religious beliefs condone child marriage, or for cases in which a child had become pregnant. Those opponents contended that prohibiting children from marrying would lead to the erosion of families. She and I are reintroducing these bills, Senate Bills 209-217 and SB 246, along with House Bills 4293-4302, for the fourth time, hoping that with Democrats holding the state House, Senate and governor's office, we will finally be able to make child marriage illegal in Michigan.
About 95% of child marriages are between girls and adult men. Abusive parents sometimes force rape survivors into marrying their abusers to avoid charges of neglect. In most states, and under federal law, sex with a child that would otherwise be considered rape becomes legal within marriage.
According to the Economist, 70% to 80% of child marriages end in divorce. Married children are twice as likely to live in poverty and three times more likely to suffer domestic abuse. Around 50% more of them drop out of high school, and they are four times less likely to finish college. They are at considerably higher risk of physical and mental illnesses. These deficits are often passed down to their children.
What makes matters even worse is that children can’t even initiate divorces without their parents’ consent. They are often locked into abusive situations for years before they have the legal right to break free. Human Rights Watch gave our state an F grade for its laws governing the treatment of minors, in part because of our child marriage laws.
Forgetting for a moment that child marriage violates human rights, is considered a form of slavery and offers protections to abusers, the fact is that children younger than 18 don’t have the emotional capacity to consent to what is meant to be a binding, lifetime agreement. Just because the state has no business regulating reproduction doesn’t mean that children have the maturity to become parents. Just because the law allows them to become parents doesn’t mean it should allow them to make another decision they are emotionally ill-equipped to make. Even if Republicans were right, and child marriage were in their best interests in certain circumstances (and by both the numbers and common sense, it isn’t), a child simply lacks the capacity to make a decision of this magnitude.
That’s why our bills are so crucial. They ban child marriage outright. There are no exceptions, no qualifications and no fine print. Our bills would make child marriage completely illegal in the state. Michiganders can rest easy knowing that Democrats are doing what’s necessary to protect our children from pedophiles, with absolutely no exceptions. We are taking on actual groomers. We have the legislation to prove it. And we finally have the numbers necessary to make it law.
Kara Hope represents Michigan's 74th District in the state House of Representatives.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Opinion: Michigan allows child marriage. Lansing Dems want to ban it.
