- If you're the kind of person who watches television
while arranging fresh flowers in you're perfectly gooped home,
I need you to stop.
First of all, because I know you're not.
I can see you.
And secondly, because you do not want
to have an expensive, throwable, cut glass vase in your hands
for this next segment.
REPORTER: It was 17-year-old Cassandra Levesque
who learned about New Hampshire's marriage law
at a Girl Scout conference.
It's a law that allows girls as young as 13
and boys who are 14 to be married
with the consent of a judge.
They're just going into puberty.
They are just discovering things about themselves.
They are not ready to discover marriage.
REPORTER: Cassandra, as part of a Girl Scout project,
worked to craft a piece of legislation
to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18.
Yeah, that sounds pretty accomplished for a Girl Scout.
But keep in mind, she only sold 12 boxes of Tagalongs, so, eh.
So the Live Free or Die state must
be so proud of this engaged young citizen.
REPORTER: State representative David Bates
agrees 13 is a young age, but believes
there can be special cases.
We're asking the legislature in New Hampshire
to repeal a law that has been on the books
for over a century that has been working without any difficulty
on the basis of the request from a minor who
is doing a Girl Scout project.
Yeah.
What does she know?
She's just a minor.
She shouldn't get to make a decision about something
as important as marriage.
Oh, my.
Look, if you think this kind of thing
only happens in states so rural their capital is
a trivia question, allow me to ruin your day.
167,000 young children under the age of 17
were married between the years 2000 and 2010.
REPORTER: Advocates say children as
young as 12 have been married with the consent
of their parents.
It's usually a way for them to circumvent
the statutory rape that would be attached
to that if they're pregnant.
What?
That is not how criminal justice works.
When we catch a burglar, he doesn't get to marry the house.
When did America decide if you rape it,
then you got to put a ring on it?
I thought we had a policy on this.
There's no place in civilized society for the early or forced
marriage of children.
Except 50 states and the District of Columbia,
a fact so mind-boggling it was used to test whether people
could tell real news from fake.
MAN: Monte, Charlotte, Grace, and Phillip also
looked over this news article.
This sounds like fake news.
I think it's fake, because it just
seems like it's impossible in this time and era.
MAN: But it's a real news story, taken from a credible news
organization, CBS News.
That's right.
CBS News.
This isn't some sensationalist made up horseshit like you
might hear over on NBC.
The good news is that groups Unchained At Last are
fighting to change state laws.
Last week, New York raised its marriage age from 14 to 17.
It's a move that says, yes, there need to be limits,
but why deny kids their right to take
their spouses to senior prom?
New Jersey is the only state to pass a bill
banning all marriage under 18.
Sadly, that bill hit a roadblock from a man
synonymous with roadblocks.
This week in New Jersey, Governor Christie
vetoed a bill that would have banned
child marriage in New Jersey.
One of the reasons he gave?
We don't want to impinge on the cultural traditions
of New Jerseyans.
Jeez.
You'd think that Governor Christie would be more
sympathetic to those finding themselves
trapped in a cruel, coercive, relationship with an older man.
We're so happy.
He is right that many people use cultural traditions
as an excuse for marrying off their daughters
before they've grown out of "My Little Pony."
It's OK.
Fluttershy can be the Maid of Honor.
But plenty of devote people of faith
find this religious freedom excuse fucking ridiculous.
Allowing marriages under the age of 18
is not about being culturally or religiously sensitive.
It's about children's rights.
I'm sorry it was that a young woman talking?
Kindly yield your time to the gentleman
with something stupid to say.
New Jersey Right to Life believes that this bill being
signed into law will encourage teenage girls who
are pregnant to have abortions. - Yes.
Or give the baby up for adoption,
or raise their child without the help of a guy
who can't figure out condoms.
You don't know, because you have no data.
But sure, let's make sure girls throw away
their dreams based on your beliefs,
just in case they're right.
Hey, you know?
Here is some data.
70% of child marriages end in divorce.
Women married before 18 are three times more likely to be
beaten by their husbands, have a higher risk
of psychiatric disorders, cancer, diabetes, and stroke,
and are 31% more likely to end up in poverty later in life,
maybe because it's hard to finish ninth grade when you
have a busy schedule of diaper changes
and letting Mister do his business on you.
Nevertheless, five state senators, all of them male,
and none of them willing to talk to us voted against the ban.
They seemed to imagine child marriage as some sort of "Walk
to Remember," scenario where two godly teens who live
in an Instagram filter just have to get married
before one of them dies.
But the vast majority of child brides
are married to grown ass adult men who should know better.
Imagine having to marry the kind of dude who
saw that Mary Kate and Ashley countdown clock and thought,
why wait?
And here's a shocker.
Lots of men who want a bride who can't drive, get a divorce,
or open a bank account turn out to be domestic abusers.
He would describe to me how he was going to kill me.
I was basically raped every night,
and I just couldn't take it anymore.
I covered my face so nobody in the village would recognize me,
and I ran away.
And I got to the city of Islamabad.
And it was 2005.
The Taliban were out and about.
And I was scared to death.
Imagine how hellish a home life
has to be for a 15-year-old from Queens,
New York to go, Taliban?
I think I'll risk it.
This is happening to a girls right around us.
It could be the girl right next door.
It could be the girl in the store selling you stuff.
I'm starting the first group home ever for underage girls
escaping forced marriages.
And that is important because domestic violence shelters
don't accept minors, and youth shelters
will notify the parents who married you off.
[CRASHING GLASS]
I warned you to put down the vase.
Look, marriage is a complex institution
that means different things to different people.
But we've learned that changing marriage
laws doesn't make the sky fall.
So I hope we as Americans can finally
agree that no one who has downloaded a Fifth Harmony
album in the past three years is mature enough to get married.
And no one who has never heard of Fifth Harmony
should be able to force her to.