Legislation Banning Marriages Under Age 16 Passes In West Virginia

When a compromise deal was signed by the governor on Wednesday, minors in West Virginia will no longer be able to get married. Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, signed a bill allowing minors (16 and 17) to get married under certain conditions. According to the AP, the new rule states that teenagers who want to marry must first get their parents' permission and cannot wed someone more than four years older than them. Existing marriages that are legally recognized in this or any other state will not be affected. Before this change, a judge's waiver was required for any couple with at least one member younger than 16. There have been multiple attempts in recent years to pass legislation prohibiting child marriage, but none have succeeded.

Although the bill's proponent, Democrat Del. Kayla Young, a resident of Kanawha County, West Virginia, wanted to see the end of child marriage. Republicans in the GOP-controlled legislature have said that legally recognizing marriages between minors helps keep families together since they or their parents did so. According to the AP, Young said she had to make concessions to Republican colleagues in order to have a legal minimum age for marriage, but she was happy about the provision in the measure that would outlaw significant age differences between spouses. According to Unchained at Last, an organization that campaigns for legislation to prohibit child marriage, seven states have raised the legal marriage age to 18 in recent years. Human rights abuse, according to the organisation.

Proponents of these laws argue that they help curb teen pregnancy and domestic violence. According to the Pew Research Center, the rate of child marriage in West Virginia was the highest of any state. Between 2010 and 2014, there were about seven weddings per 1,000 children aged 15 to 17 in West Virginia, compared to about 4.6 marriages per 1,000 for the same age range nationally. Recent data was not available. One in five girls are married or in an informal relationship before the age of 18, according to the United Nations Population Fund, which also considers child marriage a human rights violation. The least developed countries have a substantially higher rate.