No more 'child brides' in Texas.
News Radio 1200 WOAI reports a law approved by the 2017 Legislature which has now taken effect forbids people under the age of 16 from being married under any circumstance, and it requires teens under 18 to first get permission from a judge.
Texas has one of the highest levels of child marriage in the world, and the previous law allowed people of any age to get married, with the consent of a parent and a judge, and under the age of 18 to marry with the consent of a parent only.
The law allowing underage marriage is one of the reasons why Texas has become a center of sex trafficking.
Authorities say frequently, a sex trafficker will force a girl he is shopping around for sex to 'marry' him in Texas, taking advantage of the law, so he can legally take her across state lines.
The lack of any minimum age for marriage also caused problems for prosecutors who were trying to bring charges against Warren Jeffs, and other leaders of the FLDS 'church' in West Texas. Jeffs was found to have 'spiritually married' girls as young as 11.
It is believed that the state's lack of a minimum age for marriage was one of the reasons the FLDS located in Texas. It claimed that plural marriage to young girls was one of its 'sacraments.'
Jeffs was eventually convicted of sexually assaulting the young girls and is serving life in prison.