California is a state that allows child marriage, a practice that even the United Nations calls a human rights violation. While some lawmakers are legislating to eliminate what they call the “shocking” and “horrifying” practice, they’re facing opposition from an unexpected place — pro-abortion stalwarts, including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.
The fight represents a new tactic by the profit-driven abortion industry. Because the majority of abortions occur among unmarried women, it would be expected that the abortion industry would fight against the marriage of children as a way to boost its business. However, the groups’ opposition represents a larger push to eliminate parental oversight and advocate for the so-called sexual “rights” of children.
As a recent Newsweek article explained, the opposition “comes out of concerns that imposing an age requirement could set the stage for a slippery slope when it comes to constitutional rights or reproductive choices, specifically that an age requirement could impede a minor’s ability to seek an abortion” (emphasis added).
This idea is also found in comments previously made by the ACLU, which claimed that a “lack of data” surrounding child marriage “unnecessarily and unduly intrudes on the fundamental right of marriage without sufficient cause.” In 2017, the pro-abortion organization stated, “[W]e believe that some youth can appropriately make this decision for themselves.”
A spokesperson for the ACLU of Northern California recently told the Los Angeles Times that its position on child marriage has not changed.
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California spokesperson Jennifer Wonnacott affirmed that the abortion corporation “strongly supports protecting youth from abuse of all kinds” but noted that laws should “not impede on the reproductive rights of minors and their ability to decide what is best for them, their health and their lives.”
Ultimately, the abortion industry’s support of child marriage boils down to the idea of consent. The industry routinely fights against parental notification laws, arguing that minors have the right to “decide what is best” for themselves sexually, and especially when it comes to abortion. This flawed logic then results in the idea of seeking to uphold the predatory practice of child marriage; after all, admitting that minors are too young to make the life-changing choice of marriage would also mean admitting that they are too young to make the life-altering choice of sex, as well as the choice of killing their own children via abortion.
In a recent interview, Jonathan Keller, president and CEO of California Family Council, expounded on this idea.
“They [the abortion industry] are basically worried that anything that allows children to be protected from these very serious decisions is going to impact the left’s view of gender and sexuality and abortion,” Keller said. “Essentially what we have is liberal legislators and liberal groups saying, ‘The very most important thing is to protect the rights of young people to make these very serious decisions related to their sexual identity, their gender identity, or even the life of children in the womb.'”
He added, “They don’t want to open the door and say that maybe children shouldn’t make these kinds of decisions when it comes to marriage, they’re worried that somehow that would affect them being able to choose abortion.”
Keller noted that these groups’ fight to continue allowing child marriage is part of a larger push to eliminate parental rights altogether.
“Instead of (the left) trying to protect children, they really are doing everything they can to emancipate them from their parents in everything but actual technical name.”
