North Carolina lawmakers have introduced companion bills with bipartisan support that would end child marriage in the state, raising the minimum age to 18. As the law currently stands, children as young as 14 can legally get married in North Carolina.
According to The Hill, North Carolina and Alaska are tied for the states with the lowest minimum age for marriage. With parental consent, minors as young as 14 can get married in what the state calls the "pregnancy exception." This doesn't always seem to be the case, however, with the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) reporting that some marriages have involved girls as young as 12.
"This state has disturbingly become a tourist destination for those looking to marry children as young as 14," state Rep. Jason Saine (R) said in a statement. "This bill will put a stop to that practice and protect children from North Carolina and around the country."
In a time when most political discourse is one side against another, legislators crossed the aisle to co-sponsor the bills and give it bipartisan support.
"Child marriage is wrong," said state Rep. Brian Turner (D), a co-sponsor of the bill. "This bill will help put an end to a cruel practice that many times results in human trafficking and teenage girls being placed in dangerous relationships with limited to no legal protections."
The current state law has not been amended for 20 years. According to the ICRW, nearly 4,000 marriage license applications involving minors were filed in the state between 2000 and 2019, with about 93% of those applications involving a minor and an adult.
Advocates for the companion bills include Casey Carter Swegman, the forced marriage initiative project manager at the Tahirih Justice Center, a charitable non-governmental organization.
"This bill would take North Carolina from behind the national curve to a leadership position in the movement to end child marriage," said Swegman. "The urgency is growing, as many of North Carolina's neighboring states have already made progress against child marriage. If we do not pass this law now, North Carolina will increasingly become a regional destination for child marriage."
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