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California bans child marriage, a practice still legal in 32 US states

83 points · 136 comments · dabinat

  1. xvxvx · · focus · HN ↗
    Campaigners always use examples of old men marrying young girls but that’s not common at all.

    96% of children getting married were 16 or 17, and 85% of the adults marrying those children were 18-23. Not quite the horror show that campaigners push.

    I agree that no one under 18 should be getting married, I just question their tactics.

    1. porkshoe · · focus · HN ↗
      So your concern is that the marketing of a child marriage ban shows the p95 outcome, not the p50?

      Weird.

      1. jacobolus · · focus · HN ↗
        It's clear to most people that a marriage between someone 50 and someone 14 is a serious power imbalance, coercive beyond the younger person's ability to consent, and nearly everyone in our society thinks it seems gross and wrong. But as far as I can tell such marriages have not been happening in California. Prior to the new law, the consent of the parents and a judge was required.

        (Personally I think a marriage between someone 50 and someone 18 still seems bad. But the way our legal system works, once someone is 18 anything goes.)

        It's less clear that a marriage between a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old or between a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old is inherently problematic. If, for example, the woman of such a couple gets pregnant, being married could give helpful legal protection/advantage, since most of our laws are written around the default expectation of married parents.

        According to a news article from a few years ago, groups opposing a previous ban on child marriages in California included the ACLU (who claimed that it "unnecessarily and unduly intrudes on the fundamental right of marriage without sufficient cause") and Planned Parenthood (who said the law should "not impede on the reproductive rights of minors and their ability to decide what is best for them, their health and their lives").

        1. anilgulecha · · focus · HN ↗
          A law saying 18 is minimum marriage age (pretty much all across the world), is simpler to implement that

          Marriage OK if (p1>18 && p2 > 18) || (p1>16 && p2 <20) || (p1>17 && p2 <22) ..

          Marriage is a civil institution that provides social advantages, and waiting till 18 isn't really a burden for a 16 and 19yo that want to get married, and get those benefits.

          1. tasuki · · focus · HN ↗
            No need for conditionals, there's the x/2+6 rule.
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