West Virginia Senate passed a child marriage bill on Friday night. According to that if you are under 16 you could not marry. Also, a fixed age gap was declared that was not more than four years. This bill was passed with a 31-1 vote. Then it moved to the House of Delegates, where it was already passed. On Saturday legislative session was ends with a new bill.
“I want us to pass something because our current situation is intolerable,” Morgan County Republican Sen. Charles Trump said.
In the region of West Virginia children get married with their parent’s agreement when they are 16. So that this bill finished the marriage possibility for younger than 16. But with this, another condition is their partner will not be older than four years if they were 16 or 17.
But this bill does not affect somehow those who are already married. As the bill was rejected on Wednesday, but the next day Trump proceed to Senate finally it was passed. Unchained At Last stated that only 7 states follow the marriage must be 18 since 2018. This may help to avoid domestic violence, divorced and unwanted pregnancies.
“I know this has been a contentious issue among a number of people,” Trump said. “My hope is this will be viewed as a reasonable and acceptable compromise and a necessary change to our law. It would bring West Virginia in line with the vast majority of states in the country.”
Exact data is not available but according to 2014 reports, nearly 8% of marriages take place between 15 to 16 years old and children over 1000, in the area of West Virginia.
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Putnam County Republican Sen. Eric Tarr describes his own marriage when he was just 17 and complete his high school studies. When he become a parent for the first time he was in graduation. So this is a good act to “protects family” he said.
Then Kanawha County Republican Sen. Mike Stuart explain that his parents get married when they were 16 and they are not separated ever. That three countries who allowed child marriage know more at (@thunderw0lf2000)
Only three states, New Jersey, Minnesota and Delaware banned marriage under 18. Two allow 14 and two allow 15 year olds to marry with parental consent. The rest are 16 and 17 with parental consent. Time to start contacting our state senators about this.
— David gravel (@thunderw0lf2000) March 10, 2023
“I don’t say that with any amount of shame,” he said. According to Stuart, this act help removes s*x exploitations of children and they focus on their career and education now.
“Our law in West Virginia is pretty darned good. With this amendment it becomes even better,” Stuart said. “And there’s not a state in the country that can hold a candle to West Virginia on these issues.”
Only one vote which was against the law was Cabell County Democratic Sen. Mike Woelfel.
“Our state has invested a lot of money in improving our national image,” Woelfel said. “Every time we have a debate like this talking about child brides, we add to that negative image. Let’s leave it at 18. My God, it’s marriage. How in the world can teenagers negotiate a marriage at this point? Marriage is for adults.”
West Virginia just voted down a bill to ban child marriages because “teenage marriages are a part of life in West Virginia “. 😒 pic.twitter.com/sJQampOjoS
— AskAubry 🦝 (@ask_aubry) March 10, 2023
This act definitely helps children as well as their parents to give them a good career, not a boring life which they were gone through. To get more updates on the other bills you can follow us on our Facebook page.
