The New Hampshire GOP lawmaker also said that he would not "apologize to the haters" for describing 16-year-old girls as "ripe."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15199291

Republican defends child marriage: I’m “pro-choice”

A New Hampshire Republican lawmaker who has been under fire for defending child marriage has lashed out at his “haters” while insisting that his stance is “pro-choice.”

State Representative Jess Edwards inspired outrage last week after describing underage teenage girls as “ripe” and “fertile” while arguing against a bill to raise the age of marriage in the Granite State from 16 to 18. The bill passed by a vote of 192-174 despite objections from Edwards and others.

…

Edwards described critics of his underage marriage stance as “an army of control freaks that want to entice a pregnant woman into an abortion rather than allow a marriage” in a Facebook post on Monday.

  • @Delusional@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51•1 year ago

    Pro-choice for a man to marry a child but not pro-choice for any women to make their own decisions on their bodily autonomy.

    • @Wogi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22•1 year ago

      He also doesn’t want books that have gay characters in public or school libraries. Or kids to know sex exists.

      Ok for them to be married. But not to have the vocabulary to identify when they’re being abused.

    • @pivot_root@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10•1 year ago

      Pro choice like working overtime or starving.

      Pro choice like having a cell phone or not having a job.

      Pro choice like going back to prison or being homeless.

      Great choices. The only way they could be more coerced is if someone held a gun to your head.

  • @Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    25•1 year ago

    People who think child labour and child marriage are acceptable in a civil society need to be barred from government.

  • @limelight79@lemm.eeEnglish
    24•1 year ago

    I think we’re overlooking the 173 other people that voted against this bill, too.

    I mean, yeah, this guy is exceptionally bad, but a lot of other people also voted against it…

    • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      11•1 year ago

      Yeah, as much as the state tends to vote blue in presidential elections, the NH GOP is one of the worst in the whole country. We’re talking “mask off racist in the comments of every political article praising Rush Limbaugh turns out to be an 8th term state Congressman and vice chair of a committee” bad.

      That’s not even a hypothetical.

  • @motor_spirit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10•1 year ago

    My choice is to air these weirdos out and put the wolves on em. Corral these sick fucks up, take away their egregious religious rights, make them pay taxes, correct the ass backwards southern legislation, and put them on lists for being perverts.

    Start lighting up their weird clubs and shame them for their perverse lifestyle.

  • @Anticorp@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9•1 year ago

    I have a friend who got married at 16 to an 18 year old, with his parents’ permission. It didn’t really work out. Most 16 and 18 year olds don’t even know who they are yet, let alone who they want to spend the rest of their lives with.