Kentucky Votes To Ban Child Marriage

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Kentucky is one of 25 states where, provided certain conditions are met, a child can walk down the aisle to marry at any age – no bride or groom is too young.

A bill approved by the Kentucky Legislature and headed to the governor's desk would change that. Kentucky's S.B. 48 would make it illegal for anyone 16 and younger to marry. The bill cleared the Kentucky House of Representatives on Friday.

All states generally require those 17 and younger to get consent from a parent and/or judge. Nine states, including Kentucky under current law, allow officials to waive the minimum age requirements for girls who are pregnant.

"People assume that child marriage is a thing of generations past," says Jeanne Smoot, senior counsel at the Tahirih Justice Center. The Virginia-based advocacy group is leading a nationwide push to raise the legal age of marriage to 18.

[Kentucky is] poised to leapfrog from having some of the most alarming provisions in the country to being a national leader in the fight to end child marriage.

Jeanne Smoot, Tahirih Justice Center

Smoot says that Kentucky, which has one of the highest rates of child marriages in the nation, allows for children to be "abused and exploited in the guise of marriage — and effectively for no questions to be asked, provided that the right signatures appear on a form that's presented to the clerk."