In Alaska, a 14-year-old can legally get married.<\/p>\n
Sen. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage, has a problem with that and thinks other Alaskans do, too. On Thursday, Gardner announced plans to introduce legislation that increases the age limit to 18<\/a>, except for emancipated minors 16 or older.<\/p>\n Gardner’s announcement came as lawmakers begin the legislative preseason, a week of prefiled bills and preparation for the Jan. 16 start of the legislative session.<\/p>\n “The child marriage issue really applies to very few young people, very few young children, but for those children, it could be a lifesaver,” said Gardner, a Democrat who represents the University and Spenard neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Gardner said her top priority remains the state’s deficit, but there is still room to fix other problems.<\/p>\n “It isn’t a big priority, but every piece of legislation matters to somebody, and it matters a great deal to some people,” she said.<\/p>\n According to the records of the Alaska Section of Health Analytics and Vital Records<\/a>, there were nine marriages in Alaska involving a child of 14 years old between 1990 and 2016, the latest year for which statistics are available. There were almost 20,000 marriages involving Alaskans between ages 15 and 19 during that period.<\/p>\n Alaska may have many more child marriages than identified by the state, as evidenced by divorce records. According to the section of vital records, there were 36 divorces involving a child of 14 years old between 1990 and 2016, possibly indicating marriages in other states and nations. Alaska has no statute that forbids the state from recognizing marriages of children younger than 14, according to Heidi Lengdorfer, head of the vital records section.<\/p>\n “Any reason why there are more divorces than marriages in this age group is speculation,” she wrote by email, because the state doesn’t collect information on why couples divorce.<\/p>\n Gardner said she was inspired to write the legislation after hearing national coverage of the issue. In July, the public television program Frontline aired a program about child marriage nationwide. The Frontline investigation found<\/a> at least 207,468 children were married in the United States between 2000 and 2015, and that count was incomplete because six states, including California and Georgia, did not provide data.<\/p>\n Rates of child marriage are declining nationwide, thanks in part to legislation at the state level. According to Frontline’s figures, 23,583 minors were married in 2000; that figure fell to 9,247 in 2010.<\/p>\n