Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation to prevent child marriage and protect minors.
The bills raise the minimum age for a person to consent to marriage to 18, according to Whitmer’s office.
“Keeping Michiganders safe and healthy is one of my top priorities, and today’s bipartisan bills will build on our efforts to protect young people—especially young women—from abuse,” said Whitmer. “As a county prosecutor, I went after those who used their power to prey on young people, and as governor, I am proud to sign legislation to strengthen protections for children and survivors into law. Together, we can make Michigan a safe, welcoming state where you can grow up and pursue your potential.”
Now this will disappoint a lot of “religious conservatives”!
Removed by mod
🌎👨🚀🔫👨🚀
Always have been.
“BoTh siDeS aRe tHe SaMe” - Half of Reddit and Lemmy
House Bill 4296, sponsored by Rep. Betsy Coffia, D – Traverse City, is a grandfather law that ensures minors who are currently married do not lose their spousal benefits under the new laws.
That’s just weird to read
It’s horrible but trying to force-ably separate them at this point would only lead to the minors being hidden from view, deepening the abuse. Additionally, the minors are highly unlikely to actually leave their spouse, no matter how bad their situation is. Adding fuel to the “society doesn’t want us together” would only serve to deepen the minor’s distrust in everyone but their spouse, making it much harder to help them from any ongoing abuse.
Yeah, not saying it’s bad… just weird
Now the rednecks will want to kidnap her even more.
Yay, but also… it’s 2023, why wasn’t this already the case?
Child marriages should be illegal federally with zero tolerance or exceptions.
A good move from Governor Whitmer.
It wasn’t illegal in the first place?!
Lol, it’s legal in the vast majority of states.
As of July 2023, ten states have banned underage marriages, with no exception: Delaware (2018),[3] New Jersey (2018),[4] Pennsylvania (2020),[5] Minnesota (2020),[6] Rhode Island (2021),[7] New York (2021),[8] Massachusetts (2022),[9] Vermont (2023),[10] Connecticut (2023)[11] and Michigan (2023).[12]
It’s especially super cool when parents marry their underage teenage daughter to her rapist, and then he becomes her legal guardian. I’ll let you guess which major political party overwhelmingly supports this.
Not only is it legal in most states, it’s actively kept legal. It’s not just some old, irrelevant law that only exists because people haven’t noticed.
E.g., here’s an exchange from Missouri a few years ago where a state senator references an attempt to end child marriage.
The article doesn’t mention it, are parents allowed to consent that their child be married off before the age of 18?
No, that’s what child marriage was. Two 15 year olds couldn’t just go off and get married on their own before.
oh, good! thank you!
Most days it’s hard to believe how much we don’t know about our own backwards ass country.
Sometimes it’s funny
Let’s go Big Gretch!
I was curious how often this actually happened and found this other article with some figures.
https://www.iosconews.com/news/state/article_3280a3fa-bc08-54ae-80e1-a92d10aab51b.html
“More than 5,400 minors were married in Michigan between 2000 and 2021, according to the nonprofit Unchained at Last. More than nine in 10 of the minors were girls, with 12 under the age of 16.”
So I guess it was mostly 16 and 17 year olds who now have to wait to 18.
Good job Whitmer
congrats to Michigan
