Missouri Republicans Block Legislation Banning Child Marriage

Republicans in the state of Missouri failed to pass legislation that would have banned child marriage after several Republicans in a House Committee held it up over concerns for "parents' rights." And since the session ended this past Friday, it will take another year before the state has the chance to ban the marriage between a child and an adult. This is the same party that cries about liberals allegedly corrupting children, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Republicans in the state of Missouri decided last week that it's totally okay for kids to get married. Here's what happened. Republicans who control the state legislature in the state of Missouri had the opportunity to ban child marriage. It was legislation that easily passed the Senate months ago, but it got held up in the Republican controlled State House of Representatives in Missouri because in that committee, Republicans, several of them wanted to stop the legislation because they were concerned. They said that this would infringe upon parents' rights. Let me, let me repeat that in case you didn't catch it. A bill to ban child marriage, these Republicans said, would infringe upon the parents' rights. Now, when it comes to marriage, the the parents' rights shouldn't even be a thing that, that should be between the two people getting married, who should be of legal age of consent at least.

But nope, they couldn't do it. And then when they finally worked out all the kinks of it and got it out of the committee, the Republican controlled legislature said, oh, gee, Wizz, we're out of time. Our session for the year ends at 6:00 PM this Friday. When they got the legislation, they said, we, we just, we don't have time to vote on it. So child marriage for children ages 16 and 17 remains legal in Missouri because Republicans were scared they would infringe upon parental rights. Now, the way the law is right now in the state of Missouri, if you are 16 or 17 years old, with parental permission, you can marry somebody up to the age of 21. Now, you can't go above the age of 21, right? You gotta stay within that ballpark. But this bill would've said, no, you have to be 18. You have to be a legal adult.

You have to be, you know, eligible to register to vote in order to sign documents saying, Hey, yes, I'm marrying this person. 'cause let's also not forget if you're under the age of 18, you, you can't legally sign documents yet. So, you know, a little difficult to sign a marriage license, which is why of course they're like, no, just get your parents permission. This is insanity. Folks. They had, by the way, even if they ended their session Friday at 6:00 PM if they got this legislation at 5:55 PM they still could have held a quick vote, passed it been done. They made the choice to not do it under the guise of, well, we just don't have enough time. This is the same party that is out there telling us that, that liberals, people on the left are somehow corrupting our children and not protecting our children. Republicans protect the kids. They tell us

You won't even protect them from the predators trying to marry them. Which by the way, is actually a big source of, uh, trafficking here in the United States, where the traffickers will go to a state where they're legally allowed to marry somebody who's underage. They do that, and then, you know, the rest is, is history there. And that is one of the things this piece of legislation was trying to prevent. But thanks to Republicans in Missouri that can continue because republicans really, really do not care about the safety of your kids.