North Carolina Republicans are refusing to change marriage laws in their state, which allow a pregnant 14-year-old girl to get married, because some of them actually married minors, notes The News & Observer:
Sen. Danny Britt, a Lumberton Republican, said his colleagues have told him they support the intent behind the original bill draft, which would have banned all child marriages, but couldn’t vote to pass it because they either married as minors, married a minor or know someone who married as a minor.
At one point, it looked like the best legislators would do for the state’s teenagers was to bring the law in line with the state’s statutory rape laws and allow 14- to 17-year-olds only to marry someone less than four years older. But in a last-minute effort to push it through the Senate, Britt changed the bill so that children younger than 16 couldn’t marry and those 16 and 17 couldn’t marry anyone more than four years older.
The Senate agreed to that change but the bill stalled again in the House. A House bill that mirrored Britt’s original version hasn’t moved at all.
(Source: The News & Observer, Photo Credit: NCDOTcommunications/Flickr)