The second bill proposed in two years to raise the state’s minimum child marriage age to 18 was tabled Wednesday after legislators raised concerns about how it would impact military service members.
“A lot of it was, they were bringing back old arguments,” said Barrington Rep. Cassie Levesque, the author of the bill who introduced the original legislation in 2017 as part of a Girl Scout project.
Levesque, now 19, was just 17 when she first worked with former representative Jackie Cilley from Barrington to draft a bill that would raise the minimum marriage age – then 13 for girls and 14 for boys – to 18. That bill failed amid questions over whether a teenage mother could receive survivor benefits if she was not married to the baby’s military father.
Levesque was later able to get a bill passed in 2018 that raised the minimum marriage age to 16, the age of consent in New Hampshire, but she was still determined to come back to raise the age to 18.
Levesque said she heard a lot of the same concerns about military this year as she did in 2017. She said she worked hard this legislative session to dispel the misconceptions that survivor benefits could only be left to spouses. According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Department of Defense, those in the military can designate survivor benefits to a spouse, a child or another person of that service member’s choice, which could include any significant other.
Still, HB 378 was tabled 251-99 by the House on Wednesday, meaning it could still be reconsidered at a later date. Those who voted for the bill to be tabled said the bill needed additional work.
Levesque said several legislators had submitted amendments she thought provided “dangerous loopholes” in the bill. One had to do with the emancipation of minors and the other would have exempt military members from following the minimum marriage age.
“I think if you want to date someone in the military, that’s great,” she said. “You can’t help who you fall in love with. But you need to wait until you’re 18 until you can understand what marriage involves.”
Vital statistics data show that the total number of child marriages per year is relatively sparse, and has been steadily declining over time. In 1989, New Hampshire judges allowed 115 child marriages. Since 2001, there have been 20 or fewer performed each year.
The law states that anyone under 18 who wishes to marry needs permission from his or her parents and a judge to do so. In 2017, five child marriages were allowed in the state, and one was rejected by a judge, according to the state court system.
On the marriage waiver application, petitioners are asked to detail a special cause that makes the marriage “desirable.” The law, RSA-457:6, requires that a judge evaluate whether the special cause is valid and allow the marriage to go forward.
Most who filled out the form in the last five years cited impending military service, according to court records. Half of the those looking to get married in Concord in that time frame cited the expected birth of a child as a reason for their marriage.
Levesque said she can either re-work her bill in the next few weeks or approach the issue again in the fall.
She said she would work harder to dispel those misconceptions not only at the bill’s public hearings, like she did this time, but also at educational luncheons and events set up at the State House. She said she would likely try to partner with a few organizations that have been supportive of her efforts, like the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, the Kent Street Coalition and the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
“I am trying to make sure everybody is on the same page – we will set up meetings, talk more about this and come back and try it again,” she said. “I wanted this to be straightforward this time around, but unfortunately, that did not happen.”
(Leah Willingham can be reached at 369-3322, lwillingham@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @LeahMWillingham.)