LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michiganders under the age of 18 will no longer be able to marry after recent legislation passed by the House. 

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Passed with mostly bipartisan support, the group of bills had one of its main bills sponsored by Representative Kara Hope (D-Holt). 

“It’s hard to believe that this practice is still legal in Michigan in the year 2023,” Hope said. 

Other advocates against minors getting married include non-profit, Unchained at Last, which protested the states permitting underage marriages last month. 

“Some 95 percent of the children wed were girls married to adult men an average of 4.3 years older — often with devastating, lifelong consequences for the girls,” the group said, “There’s a reason the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.”

Vermont became the eighth state to end child marriage, no longer allowing the previous legislation which said “parents could enter 16- and 17-year-olds into marriage in Vermont without any input from the teen and without any legal recourse for a teen who did not want to marry.”

In the past two decades, Michigan has had more than 5,000 minors take wedding vows. 

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“Our research shows that 5,426 children, some as young as 14, were married in Michigan between 2000 and 2021,” Unchained at Last said in a statement, “Twelve of them were not even old enough to consent to sex.” 

The legislation would not alter Michigan’s age of consent laws, which mandate that individuals must be at least 16 before engaging in consensual sex with an adult.  Moreover, they would not invalidate marriages of underage people ahead of the law.  

While House Bill 4294 passed, which would establish the minimum ages for contracting marriages; require a civil license in order to marry and its registration; to provide for the implementation of federal law; and to provide a penalty for the violation of the act, was met with mixed support, but passed 98 yes votes to 11 no votes. 

Among the dissenting votes, included Representative Ann Bollin (R-Brighton). 

“Mr. Speaker and members of the House: I support raising the minimum age of consent to 18 but cannot support allowing one county to charge a different fee than other counties and using a population threshold from 2010,” she said, “The $20 fee charged by a county is lowered from 2 million to 1.5 million as per the 2010 census, which would allow Wayne County to change the fee.”