<p>Re your post #36 (which I hadn’t yet read in my post #40). I never said that I thought it was a good idea for the 22 year old who impregnated the 13 year old to be the father. I have no clue. I don’t know him and I don’t know the girl.</p>
<p>Apparently the girl’s mother, the boy’s father, the girl & the guy, and a judge in Kansas who first made them all get counseling before agreeing to the marriage thought it was a good idea. Most probably they all came to that decision after talking things out and exploring the relationship. </p>
<p>I think its a perfectly fine idea for Kansas to have a law saying that that partners have to be 18 to get married, but if they are younger than that, they need permission of their parents or guardians and a judge first. It makes it legally more difficult for a teenage girl in Kansas to get married than it would be to get an abortion. I also see no particular reason why Kansas needs to set a particular minimum - young people mature physically and emotionally at different rates. In any case, the law in California is exactly the same - NO minimum age set for marriage, with a judge involved as well as parental consent. </p>
<p>In fact, it is Nebraska that appears to be out of synch with the rest of the country in refusing to allow marriage of individuals under the age of 17, even with parental consent - and also requiring parental consent for 18 year olds. The majority of states have no minimum age set, but usually do require judicial approval or court order for younger (under age 16) teens:
See: Marriage Laws in the US by Age, <a href=“http://www.coolnurse.com/marriage_laws.htm[/url]”>http://www.coolnurse.com/marriage_laws.htm</a></p>
<p>There appears to be no minimum age for marriage in cases where there is parental consent and/or court order or where the girl is pregnant in: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticutt, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming</p>
<p>The minimum age for girls to marry specifically set at 13 in New Hampshire</p>
<p>The minimum age for girls is 14 in Alabama, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina.</p>
<p>So rant all you want. The girl in this case could have gotten married just as easily (or with the same amount of hassle and paperwork) in about 30 other states as well. The thing about Kansas is that it was the closest to them.</p>