The pigtailed girl walked into Sherrie Swensen's office three days after snuffing the candles on her 14th birthday cake. Statistics show Utah girls under 16 long have been more likely to marry than boys. A decade ago, only 39 boys ages 15 and 16 took brides. State statutes are failing to protect the hundreds of children who marry because of the strict limitations on what a judge can consider, say a growing number of county clerks and judges.
Clerks are responsible for granting marriage licenses and also can perform marriage ceremonies.
The situation in Utah was questioned earlier this month when state Rep. Carl Saunders, R-Ogden, proposed and then withdrew a bill that would raise the minimum age to marry from 14 to 16. He backed away, he says, after learning children younger than 16 needed a court order to be married. But, now, weeks before the 1998 legislative session, Saunders says he may yet draft the bill. What should be more troubling, clerk Swensen says, is kids falling into the hands of older, manipulative spouses. What's wrong, says Don Strassberg, professor of psychology at the University of Utah, is most young teens have a romantic notion, not a realistic notion, of marriage.