Governor signs into law tighter restrictions on child marriage in North Carolina

Children under 16 no longer can marry in North Carolina.

On Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper signed Senate Bill 35 into law outlawing the marriage of pregnant 14- and 15-year-olds and banning 16- and 17-year-olds from marrying someone who is four years older than they are.

“This legislation is an important step toward ending child marriage in North Carolina and instituting more protections for children,” Cooper said in a written statement. “While it falls short of raising the age of marriage to 18, it will make our state a safer place for children.”

The Democratic governor and some of the state lawmakers who championed the bill met in a private ceremony Thursday with people who experienced child marriage.

Rep. Kristin Baker, a Concord Republican, was one of those lawmakers and said she was grateful to the governor for signing the bill Thursday.

“As a conservative Christian, I am a strong supporter of the sacrament of marriage,” Baker said. “As a child psychiatrist, I am determined to protect our vulnerable youth, and to enhance their chances for happy, healthy futures. I believe this bill achieves both those measures, and I am honored to be a part of this critical effort.”

Tahirih Justice Center, an advocacy group working to end child marriages, connected the bill sponsors to people the group describes as survivors of child marriage to help lawmakers understand the dangers of child marriages.

Casey Swegman, of Tahirih Justice Center, told The N&O Thursday that despite the legislation falling short of ending child marriages completely, the campaign resulted in significant improvements to prior law.

“At the end of the day, when progress was possible, we took our mandate from the survivor advocates who helped lead this coalition and we look forward to the day when every state in the U.S., including North Carolina, ends child marriage once and for all.”

North Carolina and Alaska were the only two states that specified that someone as young as 14 could marry, though more than a dozen others fail to set an age limit at all.

Because of this, lawmakers say, North Carolina has become a hotspot for child trafficking.

“As a lifelong North Carolinian, I am proud that my state has become a top-tier destination for people who are visiting and relocating from all over the world,” said Rep. Jason Saine, a Lincolnton Republican. “Unfortunately, my state has become a destination for predators who want to traffic and marry children.

“This is not a partisan issue or a political issue. It is simply about giving children their best shot at a future and protecting them from those who would seek to exploit them.”

Tahirih Justice Center estimates that more than 200,000 children have been married nationwide since 2000 with the majority of those marriages being of girls to adult men.

The organization says that child marriages contribute to a greater risk for sexual and domestic violence, increased medical and mental health problems, higher dropout rates from school and a greater risk for poverty.

It also estimates that around 80% of these marriages end in divorce.

Two women spoke to The News & Observer during the legislative process about their experiences marrying as children.

One of the women, who is from Eden and who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of her ex-husband, said: “It’s so hard because my ex-husband, my abuser, is still in my life and still in my kids’ life. I know what it feels like to be helpless and afraid and to do everything from a basis of fear — and I can imagine that there are a lot of people who feel that way.”

She agreed to tell her story to help lawmakers conflicted on what to do understand the ramifications.

“I’m pleased that the North Carolina lawmakers passed this important, life changing legislation,” she said Thursday. “When we know better how to protect our children, it is our responsibility to take action and protect the futures of those coming after us. This type of positive change is what we see when we use our trials to create triumphs.”

The process

Representatives and senators filed identical bills this year trying to outlaw anyone under 18 from marrying.

Despite bipartisan support and 48 sponsors on House Bill 41, the four primary sponsors, Saine, Baker and Reps. Ashton Clemmons and Brian Turner couldn’t get their bill heard in the committee on families, children and aging policy and the bill died.

Sens. Vickie Sawyer, Danny Britt and Valerie Foushee, along with 13 other sponsors, managed to get their bill through with a compromise.

Sawyer and Britt introduced that compromise on the Senate floor after telling their colleagues they couldn’t get enough support to ban child marriage altogether because of lawmakers who married as teens, married teens or knew someone who did.

Britt proposed bringing the marriages of 16- and 17-year-olds in line with the state’s statutory rape laws, and banning marriage under 16.

That passed unanimously.

The House took up the Senate bill but it again stalled, on June 22, when it reached the committee on families, children and aging policy.

The bill wouldn’t move again until the committee chair, Rep. Jerry Carter, died on Aug. 3. In 48 hours, lawmakers pulled the bill from his committee, passed it through the Rules Committee and got it onto the House floor for a vote, which passed unanimously.

Because of a minor change from the House, the Senate had to vote again Tuesday before sending it to Cooper’s desk.

Clemmons, a Greensboro Democrat, told The News & Observer she was “tremendously proud” that North Carolina took a step forward in ending child marriages.

“Today is the culmination of the work and courage of survivors and advocates who steadfastly pursued this change,” Clemmons said. “It is also an example of how the legislature works best for our state — we come together to hear concerns from our citizens, collaborate across parties and chambers, and improve lives for North Carolinians. I am so grateful to have been a small part of this huge step forward.”

For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.

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