FLDS: Religious Persecution ?

Teen brides marrying older men isn’t exactly old history for Texas where yesterday the Houston Chronicle noted: ‘State Rep. Harvey Hilderbran became alarmed by reports from Eldorado, former sect members and the Utah attorney general. In 2005 he pushed into law a bill that raised the legal age of consent to marry in Texas from 14 to 16.’

In 2001 and 2002, the years just prior to the FLDS moving in, the State of Texas issued legal marriage licenses each year to over 800 girls under the age of 16 and many were for these women to marry older men:

	Marriage Licenses Issued by The State of Texas (By Age of Bride and Groom) Annual Average: 2001 - 2002
Groom:	0-24	25-29	30's	40's	50's	60's
Bride:
14	144	16	2	2
15	598	44	8	2
16	1452	128	24	6	2	2
17	2756	158	50	6

Aside from the FLDS the State of Texas certainly doesn’t appear to have any problems with young girls marrying or with them marrying older men. Each and every year between 1966 and 2005 the State of Texas issued more marriage licenses to girls under 18 to marry men twice their age (Example: 178 in 1970, 51 in 2001) than all of the girls they’ve claimed have ever been abused in the FLDS community.

Even in 2006 with it’s new minimum marriage age of 16 the State of Texas issued marriage licenses to 3 14-year-old girls and 25 15-year-old girls. Presumably these were before the law took effect.

There are currently an estimated 58,000 children in Texas who were born to girls under 16. About 60% to single teen moms. How many of them do you believe will have a better life than those growing up in the FLDS?