Missouri governor signs law banning marriage of 15-year-olds

[TexasTowelie]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri — long the easiest state in the nation for 15-year-olds to wed — has outlawed the practice.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson on Friday signed into law Senate Bill 655. Before, Missouri was one of 25 states with no minimum marriage age. And Missouri was the only state that allowed children age 15 to marry with only one parent’s approval, even if the other parent objected. Children younger than 15 needed a judge’s approval.

In March, The Kansas City Star published a series on child marriage showing that Missouri possessed the dubious honor of the most lenient law in the nation allowing 15-year-olds to wed.

The result was that Missouri had become destination wedding spot for 15-year-old brides, with 1,000 15-year-olds being wed in the state between 1999 and 2017. Many of them were marrying men age 21 or older, in effect allowing the girls to marry their rapists.

Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/articles/20180713/missouri-governor-signs-law-banning-marriage-of-15-year-olds

[RandySF]

1. So soon?

It's only 2018.

[benld74]

2. Thank you Gov

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Should have done this years and years ago...and they say MO leads the nation in setting of ...

nationwide trends. This is one I'm not proud of for MO (should have been done way before now). This is an example of where religious hypocrisy meets the real world, one very good reason to OPPOSE Josh Hawley in his run against Claire McCaskill. Josh and his wife are both very religious, and also, lawyers. Claire has done nothing but good things for MO, and Josh and folks are going to find it hard to come up with anti Claire remarks unless they are totally untrue.

Just what we need in today's environment, more lawyers! Claire was a housewife, plain and simple.
She also voted against the stupid 2018 tax cut law, where basically the 1% got all of the tax breaks, and not Missourians, so in effect, she did cut Missourian taxes by not voting for this bill, which will have to be paid for eventually since it has added trillions to the federal debt.

And Mike Pence is the one who here in Missouri pushing for Hawley? Indiania was glad to get rid of Pence and now he's in our back yard telling us what to do, especially with the crap that rump is pulling. What a hypocrite...