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As lawmakers discuss minimum marriage age, conservatives push to keep marriage legal for 15, 16-year
As lawmakers discuss minimum marriage age, conservatives push to keep marriage legal for 15, 16-year-oldsConservatives in the state House fought back a measure to set a minimum age to marry at 17 in Louisiana, heavily amending the bill to allow people under the age of 16 to get married with some conditions.
The state currently has no age floor for getting married, and backers of the legislation said current law allowing child marriages leaves young girls vulnerable to human trafficking and cover-ups for rape.
“This is to make sure we don’t have people covering up acts of rape as a marriage,” said state Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, R-New Orleans, a supporter of the legislation. “This is a child protection issue.”
Hilferty convinced the House to agree to raise the age to 17, after the original bill by state Sen. Yvonne Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, set an age of 16. The vote on Hilferty’s amendment was 63-to-31.
Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/legislature/article_920fdaf0-85a4-11e9-a334-bb5f784e01c1.html