Donna Simmons, a survivor of child marriage, told a House committee Thursday that stories like hers show how child marriages keep kids in danger and create cycles of trauma. Married at 16 to a 31-year-old man, Simmons said she struggled for years to escape the abusive relationship because of her status as a minor.
Alongside GOP Sen. Julie Raque Adams of Louisville, she is pushing for an update to Kentucky laws that would eliminate all exceptions to Kentucky’s child marriage ban.
“I can remain silent and hide in shame, or I can stand before you and refuse to let this happen to another child, because despite the violence, the exploitation, the economic disadvantages and the perceived lack of credibility, I won't hang my head in shame any longer,” Simmons said.
Simmons, who founded the Reclaim Innocence, Stop Exploitation, or R.I.S.E. collective, discovered through state law that dozens of child marriages are still taking place in Kentucky, and some of them blatantly violate the existing child marriage ban. Kentucky Public Radio investigated how the more than a dozen cases of illegal child marriage took place and talked to the county clerks who signed off on them.
The reporting turned up court orders in which a judge allowed marriages in direct contradiction to state law or clerks signed off on marriages without the proper approval. Raque Adams, who sponsored the original legislation to ban child marriage, said when laws are too complicated, it means cases slip through the cracks. Rhe rules need to be simplified to a flat 18-year-old marriage age to protect children, she said.
“It strengthens enforcement. It increases accountability,” Raque Adams said. “It closes the gaps that predators continue to exploit.”
Senate Bill 156 passed the House committee unanimously and now heads to the House floor where it could gain final passage and head to the governor's desk for a signature. The legislative session is winding down, but Simmons urged lawmakers to act quickly to protect kids from potentially dangerous situations.
“Let us not continue to legally allow children to be subjected to an interruption in their process of development, and let us begin giving them full childhoods that they do not have to spend decades of life recovering from,” Simmons said.
Under the existing law, 17-year-olds have to meet a lengthy list of requirements to get married — proof the minor stayed in school, permission from legal guardians, confirmation it’s not a coercive relationship, the full emancipation of the minor, verification the age difference is less than four years, and more.
GOP Rep. Kim Holloway from Maysville, who voted “yes” on the legislation, questioned why a pregnant 17-year-old should not be allowed to marry the father of their child if the relationship is not abusive.
Raque Adams said children have more protections before getting married and fall into a legal gray area once they get married. Simmons, for example, was unable to sign a lease and was turned away from a domestic violence shelter because she was still a minor, but also did not have the option of turning to child protective services.
Raque Adams said she was disappointed to hear some judges and clerks had failed to follow the 2018 law that she had hoped would protect children sufficiently from what she called “legalized exploitation.”
“It's unfortunate, because we thought that we had thought of everything, but clearly there was an expectation that we would have clerks and judges that would read the law. And it didn't turn out that way,” Raque Adams said. “So we figure this is the cleanest way to do it.”
Kentucky was a nationwide leader when it banned most child marriages in 2018. Delaware became the first state to set the age floor at 18 with no exceptions later the same year. According to the Tahirih Justice Center, 16 states have banned marriage until both individuals reach the age of majority, which is 18 in most states.
Rep. Michael Sarge Pollock, a Republican from Campbellsville, said in committee that his parents married as minors and are still married today. But he said that hearing Simmons testimony and understanding how child marriage can go wrong convinced him to vote in favor of the legislation.
“I'm really kind of torn. When you share the purpose and the intent behind this bill, and that is to protect our children, that gets me to the ‘yes,’” Pollock said. “If they're truly loving each other, they can wait another six months or eight months, or whatever the case may be.”
