N.H. lawmaker opposes new marriage bill, says teens are of ‘ripe, fertile’ age

A New Hampshire lawmaker argued against a bill in the state’s House of Representatives last week that would set the state’s minimum age of marriage at 18.

Republican state Rep. Jess Edwards said that the bill would make abortion more desirable for girls who are of a “ripe, fertile” age, according to the New Hampshire Bulletin and a video posted to X — formerly Twitter — with over a million views as of Sunday afternoon.

“If we continually restrict the freedom of marriage as a legitimate social option, when we do this to people who are a ripe, fertile age and may have a pregnancy and a baby involved, are we not in fact making abortion a much more desirable alternative, when marriage might be the right solution for some freedom-loving couple?” Edwards said.

The bill seeks to raise New Hampshire’s minimum marriage age to 18 from the current age of 16, and does not allow for any exceptions. It’s now headed to Gov. Chris Sununu’s desk after years of advocacy, the Bulletin reported.

Edwards’ comments were made during a debate on the bill. New Hampshire state Rep. Wendy Thomas, a Democrat, shared her response on social media.

“This is what we are up against in New Hampshire. A grown old man on the N.H. House floor defending child marriage (no age limit at all) because those children (girls) are ‘ripe and fertile,’” Thomas wrote on her Facebook page.

On Sunday, Edwards told MassLive, “There is an intentional effort on the part of many people to exploit what they consider to be a poor word choice — and which may arguably have been a poor word choice — to distract from the fundamental issue.”

The fundamental issue is about the government restricting the freedoms of 16 and 17-year-olds, Edwards said.

“If somebody’s old enough to engage in sex, they’re old enough to deal with the consequences of pregnancy,” Edwards said. “So I believe in having people be responsible and having the freedom of choice to meet their responsibilities the best way they can.”

As for the words “ripe” and “fertile,” Edwards explained why he used them.

“I don’t think anyone should be upset about the use of the word fertile because that’s the foundation of pregnancy and that’s the trigger for abortion,” Edwards said. “So for people to react to the word fertile, I just think it’s ridiculous. It’s an emotionally-laden driven issue.”

“As for ‘ripe,’” Edwards said, “You got to keep in mind that I was looking at 375 people over the age of 65. And the word was intended to grab a bunch of old people’s attention to remind them of what it was like to be a teenager.”

The lawmaker also took to Facebook to expand on his comments about his opposition to the marriage bill. During discussion about the bill, he spoke in favor of an amendment that would have allowed emancipated minors to choose marriage “while the option to get an abortion is unrestricted for 24 weeks,” he wrote.

“I explained to people who ought to understand that pregnancy leads to choices,” Edwards wrote on Facebook. “By blocking marriage as an option, the alternative of an abortion becomes more tenable.”

The new effort to raise the minimum age of marriage in New Hampshire follows the passage of a 2018 law that raised the state’s minimum marriage age to 16 — up from 13 for girls and 14 for boys, The Boston Globe reported.

The current bill passed the New Hampshire Senate in March, and on Thursday, it passed the House 192-174, the New Hampshire Bulletin reported. The bill also seeks to repeal statutes that allow legal options for minors to marry.

Edwards told MassLive that the state’s current statutes around legal pathways for 16- and 17-year-olds to marry offer a “tremendous amount of protections for these very rare scenarios.”

“Under the current law, they (teenagers) get to choose,” he said. “Their parents have to agree and an independent judicial review has to confirm that there’s no coercion or crime taking place.”

Rep. Cassandra Levesque, a Democrat, has pushed for the marriage bill since at least 2018 when she was 19 — just months away from winning her first election and becoming a representative, the Bulletin reported. She previously argued that raising the age of marriage would help reduce exploitative situations.

“We are not looking to deny children their right to marry,” she said, according to the Globe. “We are delaying their right to marry until they become adults and can give full informed legal consent.”

But Margaret Drye, a Republican representative, also voiced opposition to the marriage bill and urged lawmakers to reject it, the Bulletin reported.

“I have a problem with a rule with no exceptions,” Drye said. She argued that 16- or 17-year-olds can gain stability through marriage, the Globe and Bulletin reported.

“Young people need some support,” she said, according to the Globe. “Sometimes it’s given by their family. Sometimes it’s given by marriage. Sometimes it’s given by both.”

If Sununu signs the bill into law, New Hampshire will join 11 other states that have banned marriage under 18 with no exceptions: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, according to UNICEF.