By one estimate, an Oregonian under the age of 18 gets married roughly every other day on average. A bill to bar that from happening is on the move in the Legislature this year.
Senate Bill 548 would add Oregon to a growing number of states that prohibit minors from being married 鈥� even with a parent鈥檚 permission. Currently, Oregon allows 17-year-olds to be married as long as a guardian says it鈥檚 OK. Many other states allow even younger people to walk down the aisle.
SB 548 has both Democratic and Republican sponsors and passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in a unanimous vote on Monday. It now heads to the Senate floor. A similar bill with broad bipartisan support last year.
The bill may seem like a minor tweak, but proponents say it鈥檚 much more.
In a hearing last month, advocates from the New Jersey-based nonprofit walked senators that can come with minors entering into marriage.
The group said the law on the books technically allows parents to sign their child into marriage without consent. And because people under 18 lack legal standing in many contexts, proponents say that it can be hard or impossible for them to break free from abusive, often older, spouses.
Testimony offered by Unchained At Last presented a number of troubling possibilities, from parents signing a child into marriage to absolve themselves of financial responsibility for the minor, to marriage being used to skirt statutory rape laws.
鈥淲e all know that nobody wakes up on their 18th birthday with some newfound wisdom or ability to make good decisions,鈥� Becca Powell, the advocacy director for Unchained At Last, told lawmakers. 鈥淲hat they do wake up with, that is especially so crucial for somebody who鈥檚 being forced to marry, is all of the rights of adulthood they didn鈥檛 have even the day before.鈥�
Based on state data, Powell鈥檚 organization that more than 3,600 minors were married in Oregon between 2000 and 2021 鈥� and that 83% of them were girls marrying men roughly four years older. That would amount to about 177 minors married in the state each year.
One of those people is Amy Turpin, a Keizer resident who told lawmakers she was married at 17, after having her new husband鈥檚 child at 16. Turpin said marrying young was common in her family. Her mother and grandmother had done it before her. So she didn鈥檛 view the situation as abnormal, 鈥渁nd didn鈥檛 really see any other options,鈥� she testified.
Turpin did not graduate from high school 鈥� she said she鈥檇 given birth to her child during finals week 鈥� and lacked options when her husband began taking control.
鈥淗e moved me out of state immediately before I was 18, so I was isolated and trapped,鈥� she said in testimony last month. 鈥淭he first day banks were open after the wedding, he closed my accounts. So he got every bit of my earnings. Every worst-case scenario you can imagine has probably happened to me since then.鈥�
SB 548 has so far received no opposing testimony, but a letter signed by lawmakers in states that have banned minors from being married suggests it could be coming.
鈥淵ou will hear arguments about young love,鈥� that letter says. 鈥淩espond by asking what harm comes to a young couple if they wait a matter of months to marry.鈥�
Underage marriage is a human rights violation, the United Nations Population Fund, a branch of the international peacekeeping group concerned with sexual health.
At least 13 states have laws banning minors from getting married. Oregon is currently one of 10 states that leave the option open to 17-year-olds, according to Unchained At Last. Many others have limits of 16, 15 or none at all.
