Bipartisan legislation introduced in the state Senate may bring an end to child marriage in Missouri.
A law passed in 2018 raised the minimum age for marrying from 15 to 16 and prohibited anyone over 21 from marrying a minor. That means that 16- and 17-year-olds can still legally marry with parental consent.
Democratic Sen. Tracy McCreery and Republican Sen. Rick Brattin have introduced two bills with identical language that would prohibit the practice entirely by raising the age of marriage to 18 in all circumstances.
“That’s the realization, as a father of three daughters,” Brattin said. “You know, I see that we’re not what we were 60, 70, 80 years ago. So I think now is the time that we’ve got to update the law.”
McCreery’s legislation, Senate Bill 66, had an initial hearing Wednesday before the Senate Families, Seniors and Health Committee. Identical legislation passed the Senate last year but died in the House.
“Child marriage is the legalization of child rape,” McCreery said. “If a 21-year-old were to have sex with a 16-year-old, that would be second-degree statutory rape. Just because one parent gives permission for the child to be married doesn’t make it not rape.”
McCreery and other supporters of the bill spoke about child marriage putting teenage girls at greater risk of abuse, sexual assault, sex trafficking and poverty. No one spoke in opposition to the bill.
Several women who were married as teens spoke in support of the legislation. Brandi Dredge, who married a 25-year-old man at age 17, said she hoped the bill would protect other girls from experiencing what she did.
“I can look back at that starry-eyed teen, and I can say, ‘That wasn’t the right thing, and I’m sorry no one protected you,’” Dredge said. “I lost my childhood, and along the way I lost myself.”
Because married teenagers do not have the legal rights of adults, it is far more difficult to divorce, get a restraining order or access other resources in the event of abuse.
Sheena Eastburn, who married when she was 15, was convicted of killing her abusive husband after her attempts to divorce him or run away from home failed. She was released from prison in 2017.
“They said I was emancipated, but I wasn’t,” Eastburn said. “I still had no rights, because I was not 18. I could not escape.”
Former Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder, who married at 15 to escape an abusive home life, also spoke in support of the bill. Thompson Rehder, who did not run for reelection last year, was the bill’s Republican sponsor in the Senate last session.
“I was 15, but I was [considered] an adult,” Thompson Rehder said. “But I was a child.”
The River City Journalism Fund supports St. Louis Public Radio's Statehouse internship. Evy Lewis is the 2025 reporting intern. See rcjf.org for more information about the fund, which seeks to advance journalism in St. Louis.
