No more child brides: Make 18 the minimum age for marriage in Kansas | Opinion
There are lots of things you can’t legally do in Kansas until you’re 18 or older.
You can’t buy a cigarette. You can’t drink alcohol. You can’t go to a casino. You can’t rent a car.
You can’t vote, donate blood, join the military, apply for a loan, buy spray paint or get a Costco card.
But by God — and with a parent’s permission — you can get married.
It’s not right, and it’s time for Kansas lawmakers to do something about it. A bill introduced by Rep. Stephanie Clayton, an Overland Park Democrat, would raise the minimum marriage age to 18 with no exceptions.
The law would underscore the idea that people under 18 are children in the eyes of the law, not yet mature enough to make potentially life-changing, legally binding decisions. And it would protect young teens from being coerced into wedlock.
In Kansas, 15-year-olds are allowed to marry with a judge’s permission; 16- and 17-year-olds can wed with various combinations of parental and judicial permission. That’s better than pre-2006, when the state allowed children of any age to marry with parental permission — but it’s not good enough.
Five years ago, I wrote about a Christian group that planned to host a “Get Them Married” retreat in Wichita — a four-day conference designed to bring together families who were “actively, deliberately seeking a marriage for one or more of their children.”
The outcry was swift and strong — Wait . . . child marriage is legal in Kansas?! — and it prompted the Wichita venue to deny the group’s request. The retreat was canceled.
But the organization behind that event — Let Them Marry — and other believers still advocate for marriages of children as young as 13, arguing that marriage is the Biblical answer to sexual immorality.
Some opponents of abolishing marriage for people under 18 say girls who become pregnant should be able to marry to “legitimize” the child. One Kansas lawmaker in 2006, arguing against a minimum age for marriage, said history is full of prominent women who married young, from Loretta Lynn to the Virgin Mary.
“Every family has their own circumstances. Sometimes the best decision is to allow the marriage to go forward,” Sen. Kay O’Connor, an Olathe Republican, said at the time.
Other arguments in favor of child marriage point to teens’ reproductive rights or the need for an escape route from terrible foster parents.
That’s nonsensical. If minors in Kansas don’t have the legal standing to make independent medical or educational decisions, how could they possibly consent to marriage?
They can’t. Child marriage is coerced marriage. And it disproportionately affects girls, who sometimes are pressured, tricked, threatened or beaten into agreeing to marry adult men.
So far only four states — Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Minnesota — have banned marriage for people under 18. If Kansas truly cares about kids, we should become the fifth.
This isn’t about parental rights or religious freedom. And forget about exceptions for cases where a young girl or boy displays advanced understanding or maturity beyond their years. That argument wouldn’t fly for letting a 16-year-old buy a six-pack — or vote.
This is about recognizing that people under 18 are children according to most laws. They’re not able to enter into legally binding contracts — and that should include marriage.
