i love their reasoning too... because a pregnant child should not only be forced to have the kid, but now be allowed forced to marry someone despite not having the reasoning ability to really do either.
there is just no way to spin this that doesnt show republicans for the ghouls they are.
There is a discussion about parental rights and how denying marriage would deny a 17 year old parent the same rights as an 18 year old married parent because of how marriage is tied up in all kinds of things. Of course they could address it by an amendment that grants the rights without needing the marriage, but instead they would rather just promote abusive situatuations instead.
Plus they are trying to increase the number of teen pregnancies through abortion bans, so making it more likely that people end up as underage parents.
I mean, even just saying a minors paternal rights are something that needs to be mediated by family court doesn't sound particularly terrible to me.
If you're a minor, we've already decided that you're not able to make a lot of legal choices for yourself.