"We will have moved the needle and made North Carolina no longer at the very bottom of the barrel of states," said Drew Reisinger, the register of deeds in Buncombe County. But, he said, "we're still going to be putting a lot of children in harm's way."
NPR
No shit.
The state is currently one of 13 that allow children under 16 to wed. [...] Nine of those states have no set minimum age, the group says, relying instead on case law or a judge's ruling.
[...]
Under current North Carolina law, children as young as 14 can get married if they become pregnant and if a judge allows it. Otherwise, children can wed as young as 16 with parental permission. Alaska is the only other state whose law expressly allows marriages as young as 14.
[...]
Sawyer sponsored a bill that would have raised the age to 18. Instead, a compromise measure that won unanimous support from the Senate in May and the House this week would raise the minimum marriage age to 16 with no exceptions, including pregnancy. And even those 16 or 17 would need parental permission or a judge's decision that the marriage would "serve the best interest of an underage party."
There'll be some judges who become known for their "leniency".
The legislation needs one more Senate vote before heading to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's desk, probably this week, where it's likely to be signed into law.
Unchained at Last and the International Center for Research on Women are among groups pushing states to raise the marriage age to 18, with no exceptions. Six states have reached that standard — most recently New York last month.
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