Judges would nullify parental authority without the parents knowing they lost custody of the child.
Democrat lawmaker, Jason Dunnington, proposed a new law to strip parents of their important role of approving a 16 or 17 year old's request to get married. He dramatically detailed one scenario of an unnamed and unverified instance where a child felt forced into a marriage she regretted.
Dunnington's solution is to end all marriages where a spouse is under 16 years of age. But the real sticking point was to also end parental permissions for 16 & 17 year olds and exchange the parental right for a judge's order of emancipation. Reps. Gann, Olsen, Russ, Randleman, Lepak, West(K), & David Hardin; challenged the measure on various points and provided several scenarios where Dunnington continually insisted that only judges were fit to make the decision to remove the youth from the parents and make the decision without any parental consent or perhaps even knowledge of the proceedings? |
Four GOP lawmakers switched their yes votes to 'No", just before the roll was closed and the bill had sustained a clear defeat. Phillips, West(J), Osburn, & McCall had been 'Yes' votes.
Republicans voting for the Dunnington bill included Echols, Fincher, Ford, Kannady, McIntire, Pae, Pfeiffer, Dustin Roberts, Sterling, Talley, Townley, & Wright. Merideth, Roe, Nollen, Sanders, & Wallace did not cast votes. |
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