disgusting...
http://www.unionleader.com/state-go...ising-minimum-age-for-marriage-to-18-03092017
Lawmaker pushes back against raising minimum age for marriage to 18
By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM
New Hampshire Sunday News
NH House Roundup: Bill to ban 'child marriage' fails in House
The bride was 13 years old when a New Hampshire judge gave her permission to get married.
That was in 2013.
The girl was one of 810 minors who have gotten married in this state since 1989.
House lawmakers today will vote on whether to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18. A bill to do so sailed through committee last month and was on the consent calendar for a vote by the full House.
Not anymore.
Rep. David Bates, R-Windham, removed House Bill 499 from the consent calendar and plans to oppose the measure today on the House floor.
.
“There’s a serious disconnect in the ‘Live Free or Die’ state that the Legislature would pass a law saying under no circumstances can a minor ever become married,” Bates said Wednesday.
Supporters say the bill protects children from predators and forced marriages. And they say minors are not capable of understanding what it means to enter into a marriage contract.
Amanda Grady Sexton from the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said since marriages are approved by the state, “The state has an obligation to determine when someone is truly capable of understanding what kind of legal contract they’re entering into.”
..
“And I think in many ways we as a state have determined that children are not capable of understanding the long-term implications of their actions,” she said
Under current law, girls as young as 13 and boys as young as 14 can marry with the consent of a parent or guardian and approval by the family court, “if satisfied that special cause exists making such marriage desirable.”
According to statistics from the state Division of Vital Records Administration, from 1989 to 2016, there were 784 marriages recorded in New Hampshire in which at least one party was a minor.
..
http://www.unionleader.com/state-go...ising-minimum-age-for-marriage-to-18-03092017
Lawmaker pushes back against raising minimum age for marriage to 18
By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM
New Hampshire Sunday News
NH House Roundup: Bill to ban 'child marriage' fails in House
The bride was 13 years old when a New Hampshire judge gave her permission to get married.
That was in 2013.
The girl was one of 810 minors who have gotten married in this state since 1989.
House lawmakers today will vote on whether to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18. A bill to do so sailed through committee last month and was on the consent calendar for a vote by the full House.
Not anymore.
Rep. David Bates, R-Windham, removed House Bill 499 from the consent calendar and plans to oppose the measure today on the House floor.
.
“There’s a serious disconnect in the ‘Live Free or Die’ state that the Legislature would pass a law saying under no circumstances can a minor ever become married,” Bates said Wednesday.
Supporters say the bill protects children from predators and forced marriages. And they say minors are not capable of understanding what it means to enter into a marriage contract.
Amanda Grady Sexton from the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said since marriages are approved by the state, “The state has an obligation to determine when someone is truly capable of understanding what kind of legal contract they’re entering into.”
..
“And I think in many ways we as a state have determined that children are not capable of understanding the long-term implications of their actions,” she said
Under current law, girls as young as 13 and boys as young as 14 can marry with the consent of a parent or guardian and approval by the family court, “if satisfied that special cause exists making such marriage desirable.”
According to statistics from the state Division of Vital Records Administration, from 1989 to 2016, there were 784 marriages recorded in New Hampshire in which at least one party was a minor.
..
