Even with the lawyer they need permission for the divorce. Running away is often their only choice to avoid being constantly raped by an old man. In the USA. In 2023. https://www.unchainedatlast.org/united-states-child-marriage-problem-study-findings-april-2021/

Wtf I did not know it went to new levels of horribleness

Just an FYI, minors CAN enter into contracts. It is true infancy imparts a lack of capacity. However, minors can still enter contracts. They are voidable at the election of the minor party until a reasonable time after reaching the age of maturity unless the contract is for necessities, then it is not voidable.

That's seriously fucked up. Even for the US.

rape*

Q:How did ma ma and pa pa meet?

A:our relationship was Court Ordered.

One of my wife's friends needed parental consent because she got married at 17 (to a guy a few years older). The whole thing worked out OKish - they've been together nearly 20 years, had a couple of kids, but I think they both recognise they got together too young, and wouldn't otherwise be together today - though they have no plans to separate.

I can. By making it technically possible, you can divert attention.

One example would be for crazy edge situations. Like letting children with terminal illnesses fulfill their last wishes, or letting hormone ridden teens make their case to a judge, keeping them from more extreme actions.

But more practically, I think this is a great idea... 99.9% of anyone asking for this either needs court ordered mental evaluation and/or a referral to CPS to do a deep dig into the situation. By making it technically possible, that means anyone seriously pursuing this has to explain themselves to a judge.

Unfortunately our judicial system has a lot more to do with money than justice (so most people who would actually go through with this probably have the money to protect themselves from consequences), but this law would be a sensible part of a more perfect system... Granted this should almost never be granted by the court (terminally ill child is the only situation that makes sense to me), but there's value in it

My opinion would change greatly if this is a real path to child marriage rather than a mostly theoretical possibility

mostly when the girl is raped by her future husband and the family did want to live with the shame/sin of sex before marriage. So they just marry off the girl and pretend the sex happened after the wedding