Bill to ban child marriages in Texas advances in the House

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The Texas House brought the state one step closer to eliminating a legal loophole that permits child marriages.

House Bill 168, by Rep. Jon Rosenthal, a Houston Democrat, tentatively passed 83-51 on Tuesday and will be up for a final vote this week before advancing to the Senate. If passed, the bill would prohibit counties from issuing marriage licenses to minors, even if they are emancipated, and would effectively end any current marriage involving a minor.

Marriage involving teens is rare after lawmakers in 2017 took steps to curb the practice, but the loophole has still allowed some cases involving minors to move forward.

“I brought this bill, originally to protect our Texas children from a loophole in the law that allows trafficking of these kids. And that is certainly still my goal,” Rosenthal told lawmakers from the floor Tuesday.

Lawmakers also tentatively approved a provision in the bill on Tuesday that would give survivors of child marriage a pathway for legal recourse when their marriage is dissolved. Advocates for survivors worried that the bill would leave survivors with nothing by voiding their marriages.

The bill faced some questions from representatives on the house floor.

Rosenthal clarified that Texas laws already say people must be 18 to marry, even though the age of sexual consent is 17, and the bill would not change that age limit.

Rep. Linda Garcia, a Mesquite Democrat, asked what the bill would mean for teens protected by so-called Romeo and Juliet laws, which allow for relationships between adults and minors if there is an age gap of three years or less.

“I think there's just some concern that in a Romeo and Juliet relationship, that this would stop them from being able to legally get married,” Garcia said, adding that teens in such relationships can still live as common law spouses.

Rosenthal agreed that the bill would not affect common law marriages and would only affect those that go through the courthouse.

He told The Texas Tribune that he is concerned that some lawmakers might try to insert into his bill a Romeo and Juliet provision.

“If it manages to get on there, I'm going to withdraw the bill,” Rosenthal told The Texas Tribune.

The provision faces a high threshold for passage, since he doesn’t support it and it is being proposed after the House already tentatively approved the bill without it on Tuesday, he said. It would need at least 100 votes, which would require Democrats to buy-in to it as well.

If the bill passes in the House, it would head to the Senate where it will have to go through a committee and face another three votes on the Senate floor.

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