https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article288424893.html
Some choice excerpts:
“It’s on the…going 16 to 18,” Murphy, who supports the bill, said of the opposition. “There’s just enough members in that committee that don’t think that’s a good idea.” One of those lawmakers is Rep. Dean Van Schoiack, a Savannah Republican and vice chair of the committee. Van Schoiack said in an interview that he knows people who got married as minors, including a woman at roughly age 17. The couple, he said, is “still madly in love with each other.” “Why is the government getting involved in people’s lives like this?” Van Schoiak said. “What purpose do we have in deciding that a couple who are 16 or 17 years old, their parents say, you know, ‘you guys love each other, go ahead and get married, you have my permission.’ Why would we stop that?”
Rehder, who is running for lieutenant governor, pushed back in an interview. “The government does tell people when they can get married because we do have an age limit right now,” she said. “The fact that he feels that it’s okay for a parent to make a decision for a child, that is a lifetime decision, is offensive.” The legislation is personal for Rehder, who was married at age 15 to her 21-year-old boyfriend in 1984. A year earlier, her sister, at age 16, married her 39-year-old drug dealer, she has said. “As a child that did get married,” she said, “I would say I have a lot more insight to this issue than what he does.”
Article also quotes another Republican who says if teenager don't have the option of marriage, they will have an abortion instead.
= new reply since forum marked as read
