File photo
Freshman Democratic State Rep. Perry Warren of the 31st Legislative District is taking on an important issue that many residents have likely never given much thought to recently.
What his office is calling simple piece of legislation will remove the exemptions that allow for children of any age to get married in Pennsylvania. As it currently stands, children can get married at any age with a judge’s blessing. If that child is 16 or 17, they only need the blessing of a single parent or guardian.
“Our role here is to introduce this bill to create a floor of 18 years old for someone to get married,” Warren said during the news conference.
Fraidy Reiss of Unchained at Last, a nonprofit that helps women resist unwanted marriages, was also at the telephone news conference and spoke with reporters. According to Reiss, stopping underage marriages is important for two main reasons. The first is that children are easily forced into marriages and the second reason is that children in marriages are often beholden to devastating impacts, such as poor education, poor health and being much more likely to experience violence.
With Warren’s bill, Pennsylvania joins Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut as states working to end underage marriage.
Reiss indicated that a study found that between 2000 and 2010, 167,000 kids were in marriages by the 38 states that keep such records. Pennsylvania is among the 12 that do not keep records.
Jeanne Smoot of the Tahirih Justice Center explain the impact these marriages can have on girls and children. According to Smoot, kids, and especially girls, wont speak up in many cases about their concerns out of fear for the consequences that could come from making their parents or soon to be spouse angry. In addition, kids are easily forced into marriages through emotional abuse, physical abuse, pressure and economic coercion.
“I think all of this drives home the point that there are so many obstacles, both legally and practically, that girls in these situations face,” Smoot said.
The issue came to Warren’s attention when Tara Grunde-Mclaughlin, a council member in Newtown Borough, contacted him after reading an editorial from Reiss in the Washington Post.
According to Warren, the bill has already received support from Republicans and Democrats in the legislature.
“It’s time for Pennsylvania to be a leader in this and protect children from the dangers of underage marriages,” he said.
