Two efforts to modernize North Carolina laws regarding marriage were derailed in the General Assembly on Wednesday.
North Carolina has the lowest minimum age marriage in the country at just 14. A bipartisan bill to raise that to 18 was watered down to leave it at 14 but to restrict marriages for anyone under 18 to someone who's no more than four years older.
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Youths ages 14 and 15 would still need court approval to marry, while those ages 16 or 17 could marry with parental consent.
"North Carolina has become a destination place for folks marrying children and for sex trafficking," said Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson, who crafted the amendment to align with the state's statutory rape laws.
The International Center for Research on Women reviewed marriage license applications in 50 North Carolina counties from 2000 to 2019 and found more than 4,000 minors had applied to be married during that time. In 93 percent of the applications, an adult was marrying a minor. In almost three out of every five marriages, had the pair not been married, the relationship would be considered statutory rape, a felony.
Sen. Natasha Marcus, D-Mecklenburg, said she was "deeply disappointed" by the amendment, saying it still allows children to be married off to adults.
"Sixteen and 20 is a huge age difference," Marcus said. "The difference in age is part of the problem with child marriage, but it's not the only problem."
Donna Pollard said she's an example of that.
The Louisville, Ky., woman told members of the Senate Judiciary committee that she was sexually abused at 14 and had to marry her abuser at 16. She was forced to drop out of school, had to walk to a low-wage job because she couldn't drive and couldn't go to a domestic violence shelter when her husband assaulted her because she wasn't of legal age.
"The many adults and the system that allows child marriage failed me," Pollard said.
Sponsors said they changed the North Carolina bill because of concerns among conservatives that prohibiting pregnant teens from marrying might make them more likely to have abortions.
Sen. Vicki Sawyer, R-Iredell, said she negotiated as much as she could on the bill and was happy with Britt's amendment and the ability to put up some guardrails on teens marrying.
"Let's focus on the good, not some of these minute details," Sawyer said.
Meanwhile, a proposal to eliminate North Carolina's "criminal conversation" law, which allows people to sue a spouse's lover for adultery, failed in a House Judiciary committee amid pushback from social conservative groups.
"This was started in the 1700s in Great Britain when women were still treated as property of their of their husbands, and since then, it has become very archaic and antiquated and has actually been abolished in most countries and states," said sponsor Rep. Wesley Harris, D-Mecklenburg.
North Carolina is one of only six states with the law still on the books.
But Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, and Jere Royall, director of community impact and counsel for the North Carolina Family Policy Council, both said doing away with the law would essentially sanction adultery.
"We believe that the state's policy should remain clear – that marriages are worth protecting ... and that a third party who has committed adultery will be held accountable and liable for their actions," Royall told lawmakers.
"The law's still good because it works as an effective deterrent to home-wrecking," Creech said.
Rep. Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland, called the law "cruel and harsh" noting that it's mostly used by divorce lawyers to blackmail the opposing party for a better settlement.
Harris said he removed other sections of the bill calling for reducing the required waiting separation period before filing for divorce and repealing the state's "alienation of affections" law, which also allowed jilted spouses to sue, to increase the bill's chances of success. But when the committee deadlocked 4-4 on the amended bill, it died anyway.