Speaking of pregnant
A week-ending vignette from the Pulaski County courthouse.
A couple from Memphis seeks judicial approval for marriage.
He: 22
She: 14 and pregnant.
Her justification: 1) "I go to church." 2) "My daddy says it's OK because we're in love."
Ruling: Denied.



Comments
Lordy, lordy! Sometimes I wonder if we haven't evolved a little too far. I wouldn't want my 14 yr old married or pregnant, but mother nature does get all those hormones going early and how old was Juliette?
Posted by: Ci.Ci
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July 18, 2008 01:06 PM
And was the gentlemen then escorted into a holding cell by the bailiff, to await formal charges of sexual relations with a minor?
Posted by: Lorax
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July 18, 2008 01:16 PM
I see no age restrictions on 1 Corinthians 7:8-9, where Paul says
"Now I say to those who aren't married and to widows - it's better to stay unmarried, just as I am. But if they can't control themselves, they should go ahead and marry. It's better to marry than to burn with lust."
Posted by: Public Service Announcement
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July 18, 2008 01:26 PM
Now wait just a gall-danged minute! What part of (1) "I go to church.", and (2) "My daddy says it's OK because we're in love." does the judge not understand?
Posted by: hugh mann
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July 18, 2008 01:29 PM
Thank you, hugh mann... and why oh why should a court (the government) be involved in the permission process at all?
Not that I think this is a good idea for the kids... but the idea of government involvement is most unsettling of all.
Posted by: Eureka Springs, AR
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July 18, 2008 01:46 PM
Love is a many-splendored thing,
It's the April rose that only grows in the early spring,
Love is nature's way of giving a reason to be living,
The golden crown that makes a man a king.
Lost on a high and windy hill,
In the morning mist two lovers kissed and the world stood still,
When our fingers touch my silent heart has taught us how to sing,
Yes, true love's a many-splendored thing.
Posted by: durangokid
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July 18, 2008 02:00 PM
The reason they needed a court order is I guess she is too young to get a marriage license. The reason people go to court to get an order on the clerk is so that the child will not be born out of wedlock and so the mother-to-be will have more concrete legal rights as a legally married person.
Or have you missed the whole debate about civil unions?
But this is way pitiful.
Posted by: bopbamboom
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July 18, 2008 02:04 PM
Now wait just a gall-danged minute! What part of (1) "I go to church.", and (2) "My daddy says it's OK because we're in love." does the judge not understand?<<
Ok Human and E.S. you've both demonstrated that marriage in U.S. is but a civil arrangement. Now, why can't that same civil arrangement be extended to people of the same sex?
Posted by: eLwood
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July 18, 2008 02:05 PM
"Now, why can't that same civil arrangement be extended to people of the same sex?"
Posted by: eLwood
A finer question has never been asked.
Posted by: hugh mann
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July 18, 2008 02:20 PM
You did say "Memphis", right?
That's EAST of the big river?
NOT in Arkansas?
Whew!
OK. Now, since the girl already IS preggers, assuming she'll go forward with the baby birthin', I think it would make complete sense for them to get married. Dude is gonna be 'spected to pay fer the lit'lin's raisin' anyway. What's the problem? Make 'em legal.
Posted by: RickBaber
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July 18, 2008 02:24 PM
It's a decent enough question, to be sure, but finer questions HAVE been asked.
Posted by: mm
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July 18, 2008 03:15 PM
They sound educated.
Posted by: JenJens
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July 18, 2008 03:33 PM
I guess statutory rape isn't rape if you get the girl pregnant and/or she has idiot parents.
I sure wish adults would quit preying on children.
Idiot world.
Posted by: zelda
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July 18, 2008 05:01 PM
Grandma was married at fourteen and grandpa was nineteen; she was pregnant at 15. They were married over 30 years before he passed away in his early 50s. They had a long and, by all accounts, happy marriage that produced 5 wonderful children.
Now, things were different then, yes, but what exactly? Some would say that in those impoverished times, all a girl could hope for was a husband to bail her out of a poor and overcrowded home.
But the increase in opportunities for women is not all that has changed. Everything about society's view of marriage has changed as has society's view of children.
Children aren't raised today to be good adults--they're raised to be perpetual children. As the source of our livelihoods has moved from the farm to the office, children have lost what made the greatest generation: a sense of duty among the family and community. Extended families used to work together and everyone had a job to do; neighboors helped each other bring in the crops of one family in the spring, because they knew this would be recipricated to them in the fall.
At fourteen, my grandmother was more capable and responsible that just about any 20-something woman I meet today.
The biggest issue we face is not teen marriage--it's what our "progress" has done to us as a community.
Posted by: Basil
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July 18, 2008 05:34 PM
"My daddy says it's OK because we're in love." ????
Oooookay. I mighta felt better if Daddy had been present to speak for himself -- and gotten his butt kicked around the courthouse a few dozen times, along with Daddy-to-be. By the way, wonder what Mommy had to say . . .
It does seem like there should be some applicable charge to press against Daddy-to-be. Maybe taking a kiddo across the state line or some such, since I'd guess the previous dastardly act probably occurred across the Big Muddy, over in Tennessee? Or do we want to be sure she has two or three more young'uns before she's eighteen? Of course, if Daddy-to-be landed in the pokey, I guess Daddy's little girl could find some other stud, er, baby-maker, er, ah, boyfriend, for the next one. Guess there's never a shortage of candidates, is there?
Posted by: Doigotta
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July 18, 2008 06:00 PM
You bet it is rape...in my place of business if she came in, I would be obligated by law to contact DCFS and they in turn the state police.
Posted by: Nanc
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July 18, 2008 08:23 PM
I think the couple watch too damn much Discovery Channel and were getting an early start so they could top the Duggar family with 22 or 23 kids by 2028. Never undermisestimate the draw of free gifts and yer own TV show when all you gots to do is FK to get it. The damn law is standing in the way of the future Tennessee Duggar family! Don't just stand there......pray on it!
Posted by: Deathbyinches
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July 19, 2008 12:24 AM
Surely starting reproduction at 14 will get a jump on the Duggar machine, the Duggar zip code.
--------------------------------------
mm,
Of course you're correct,
Finer questions have been asked.
Rather, "Good question".
I over-sympathized.
I mean, over-emphasized.
Legalize gay ties.
Posted by: hugh mann
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July 19, 2008 12:44 AM
To hell with queer ties... elwood its a little queer of you to keep on asking stupid questions all the time.
There is noting civil about queers!
Posted by: chasv
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July 20, 2008 10:00 PM