Kentucky Republicans just made it easier for parents to marry off their underage children

Just when you think the Republican Party can sink no lower, just when you assume the party that supported a child molester for Senate in Alabama and elected an admitted sexual predator to the White House they discover a whole new, hitherto unimagined, degree of depravity.

The Courier-Journal reports that Republicans in the Kentucky Senate have voted down a measure to raise the minimum age for marriage to eighteen. The GOP decided it was more important to ensure parents can easily marry off their children than it was to prevent child marriages.

The bill the Republicans rejected was called the “Child Bride Bill,” which perfectly puts into perspective how vile the opposition to it was. Supporters of the blocked legislation said that most underage marriages involved an older man and a teenage girl who most likely has been sexually exploited. It’s sadly not surprising that the party of Trump — a man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl — would support such a despicable move.

The lobbyists who worked to prevent the reasonable and morally imperative bill are conservatives who see the issue as part of the larger cultural war. That is to say, once again the relgious right has proven that unless they’re stopped they will reduce this country to a regressive, morally vacant hellscape modeled after the worst elements of ancient religious texts.

Read more: http://washingtonpress.com/2018/03/02/kentucky-republicans-just-made-easier-parents-marry-off-underage-children/