Tag: House Bill 1200 (2025)

      A proposal to eliminate state-recognized marriage for those under the age of 18 has been advanced by a House Committee.  Several lawmakers expressed support for the change as a way to protect children, especially from traffickers.  Others expressed hesitation about creating a roadblock to young couples who genuinely want to be wed.

      Missouri law was changed in 2018 to allow the issuance of marriage license to those 18 and older, and to those between 16 and 18 with parental consent.  No licenses may be issued to couples in which either party is younger than 16. 

      The sponsor of House Bill 1200, Representative Renee Reuter (R-Imperial), said the 2018 change was an improvement, but it did not go far enough.

      “There are problems in Missouri with human trafficking and … marrying young people off is one way to lock them in to sex trafficking for a while,” Reuter told the Committee on Children and Families.  “We have to protect people from being trafficked, and so because of that I think we need to look at the law a little differently and I think we need to protect these women, mainly women, who are being damaged by the marriage laws that we have today.”

      She said people who get married younger than 18 are trapped.

      “One cannot get divorced in the State of Missouri until you’re over 18, so should you get married at 16, you’re stuck in that marriage because there’s no way to divorce until you’re 18,” added Reuter, who is an attorney. 

      Reuter cited the stories of women who married when younger than 18 and found themselves in situations of abuse from which they couldn’t escape.

      “They were beaten, raped, and forced into sexual relationships with other people and it just got so bad that they ran away.  When they ran away they would get picked up by authorities, and the first thing they would do is take them home to their husband.  They wouldn’t take them to their parents, they would take them home to their husband … because they were married, and that was just a repeating scenario, and what would happen when they get back is things would even get worse.  They just saw this as a way that they couldn’t get out of, they couldn’t get out of the marriage.  Sometimes [their husband] would put them on a plane and take them to another country and they couldn’t get back.  This is a real problem for people who are caught up in it.  The marriage itself becomes the chains that are around the wrist, to keep them in this situation, and that’s not what marriage is supposed to be about.”

      Some on the committee expressed opposition, saying they know people who were wed when younger than 18.

      “I have multiple friends who have been married at 16, 17 years old and have amazing marriages,” said Representative Mike Costlow (R-Dardenne Prairie), but he said that was only part of his objection.  His greater concern, he said, was about legal recognition for young families.

      “Our age of consent law here in Missouri begins at 17.  [For this bill to become law] would mean that we are saying you can legally go out, have sex, get pregnant, create a family unit, but you cannot get married to be recognized under the law that way, at 17.”

      Some, like Carthage Republican Cathy Jo Loy, wondered whether the legislation could include an exception for marriages that are not in some way coerced.

      “Right now I’m supportive of this bill, but I’m really having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that not all young marriages are that situation.”

      Representative Ann Kelley (R-Lamar) said HB 1200 could result in a law that misses its target.

“If you’re going to do something bad, you’re going to do it no matter what, right … so who pays for it?  The people that are wanting to get married for the right reasons, they’re the ones that are paying for it.  I understand where you’re coming from, I just wish there were some exceptions or something in here to allow the ones that have good intentions to go ahead and get married.”

      Upon hearing those concerns, Reuter suggested that her colleagues consider another way to look at such situations.

       “In the Catholic church, you can get a divorce under Missouri law but the church does not recognize it unless you get an annulment, and to me they could come up with something like that within the church, but within the law I think we need to take this approach.”

      Ozark Republican Jamie Gragg said the bill is in line with what has been the focus of the Committee on Children and Families in recent years.

“My grandparents were married at 14.  We don’t live in the same world today, anymore, and our ultimate goal, and I think everything we’ve done here in this committee this whole year is protecting children, and that’s where our focus has to be and I think that your bill is doing just that … [regardless of] what used to be or what is allowed in other countries or other religions, here in America we have to protect the kids.  We have to.”

      The Committee’s top Democrat, Raychel Proudie (Ferguson), said there are parallels between what this bill seeks to address, and the fact that judges in Missouri typically refuse to finalize a divorce if one party in the marriage is pregnant.  That has effectively prevented pregnant women in abusive relationships from being able to divorce their partner. 

      “If you’re not 18, regardless of what your situation is currently you just have to be there, and if you’re pregnant you really have to just be there, so it’s a bad situation all around.”      

      Proudie is one of the sponsors of a bill to deal with that situation, which was recently advanced by the Children and Families Committee.

      Committee chair Holly Jones (R-Eureka) illustrated a further point in support of HB 1200.  She asked Reuter, “Is there another contract that we can enter into under the age of 18 that’s legally binding?”

“I am not aware of any,” Reuter said.

      A Senate version of this legislation made it to the House in April last year but did not reach the Governor’s desk.

      In spite of the concerns that were voiced, HB 1200 was passed out of the committee with a 15-0 vote.  The legislation now goes to another committee which could vote to send it to the full House.