Kentucky’s ‘child bride’ bill, which would put an end to underage marriages if passed, has been stalled for a second time.
Lawmakers reportedly expressed concerns about stripping parental rights if Senate Bill 48 is approved, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The bill was initially put into place after Louisville Republican Julie Raque Adams learned the state had the third-highest child marriage rate in the nation, Tahirih Justice Center reported.
Currently, children aged 16 and 17 are legally allowed to wed given their parents’ permission.
If a girl under the age of 16 is pregnant, she may legally marry only the father to her baby.
Kentucky’s ‘child bride’ bill sponsor Senator Julie Raque Adams expressed her outrage over the second stalling to vote in a Thursday Twitter statement
The current law allows a boy of any age to legally marry anyone he has impregnated.
The Senate Bill 48 would make the legal marriage age 18, while 17-year-olds would be permitted to marry with permission from a district judge.
The age difference between the 17-year-old would need to be four years or less than other individual’s, according to the Indy Star.
Bill sponsor Adams expressed her outrage over the second stalling to vote in a Thursday Twitter statement which appears to have since been deleted.
‘SO disappointed! My SB 48 (outlaw child marriage) won’t be called for a vote,’ Louisville Republican sponsor Julie Raque Adams wrote to Twitter.
Supporter of the bill and a woman who was forced to marry her older perpetrator at 16, Donna Pollard, Donna Pollard is shown with Attorney General of Kentucky Andy Beshear in September 2017
Pollard, who has since divorced from her perpetrator, said the forced marriage left her feeling ‘totally trapped’
‘It is disgusting that lobbying organizations would embrace kids marrying adults. We see evidence of parents who are addicted, abusive, neglectful pushing their children into predatory arms. Appalling.’
Meanwhile, supporter of the bill and a woman who was forced to marry her older perpetrator at 16, Donna Pollard, said opponents of the bill include a group of conservative lawmakers who ‘lobby lawmakers on social issues,’ the newspaper reported.
Pollard, who has since divorced from her perpetrator, said the forced marriage left her feeling ‘totally trapped’.
Executive director of the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, Eileen Recktenwald, spoke out against the current law in place, calling it ‘legalized rape of children’.
Boone County Republican Sen. John Schickel, said parents should have the right to make decisions for their child, not the court.
‘I had some problems with the bill,’ Schickel said in a Thursday statement. ‘Decisions involving a minor child should be made by a parent, not the court.’
Adams said she is working with other lawmakers on a compromise bill she hopes all parties can agree on.
Twitter users after expressed their concern about the state’s ‘child bride’ law.
