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House Republicans Use Deceit to Block Child Brides Legislation

12/20/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
So, this is Republican family values, huh? Girls being forced to marry as young as nine years of age. This past Thursday, the House took up a bill that would have ensured that child marriages would be recognized as a human rights violation. The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2010 would have aimed to develop comprehensive strategies to prevent marriages around the world which would have involved girls too young to safely bear children.

Cases out of Yemen and Afghanistan have highlighted the risks of these marriages with one girl literally being raped to death by her Yemeni husband because he tore her vagina so badly that she bled to death. He actually had to tie her up in order to prevent her from running away while he consummated the marriage through rape. Elham Assi was thirteen at the time, and her husband was a decade older than her. Girls as young as nine are sometimes bartered away in marriage to men years and often decades older than they are.

The legislation had bipartisan support, but the Republicans decided at the last minute that the bill was too costly and could lead to increased abortions, neither of which is true according to the bill’s supporters. Still, that was the excuse that was circulated to the Republicans so that they would vote against this bill.

According to the Huffington Post:

The measure, introduced by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), passed the Senate by unanimous consent and attracted a list of 42 cosponsors, including Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). It also had the support of nonpartisan groups like the YWCA. On Dec. 6, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post, praising the United States for stepping up: “This act illustrates how support for securing a just and healthy life for every woman and girl transcends politics.”

The House version, introduced by Reps. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.), had 112 cosponsors. What’s interesting is that some of them — such as Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) — actually voted against the bill. In the end, only 12 Republicans backed the measure; nine Democrats defected to the GOP side. So what happened?

The GOP sent out a whip alert about the legislation in which House Minority Leader John Boehner, Minority Whip eric Cantor and Committee on Foreign Affairs ranking member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen all came out in opposition to the bill saying:

S. 987 authorizes $108 million over 5 years without sufficient oversight of the taxpayers’ money. According to the Congressional Research Service, there is no available, confirmed figure on how much taxpayer funding is already being used to fight child marriage in developing countries and this bill does not address that issue.

In contrast, Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen has introduced H.R. 6521, which would result in no more than $1 million in potential costs, while making it clear that child marriage is a violation of human rights and that its prevention should be a goal of US foreign policy; requiring the creation of a multi-year strategy; requiring a comprehensive assessment of what the United States is already doing and funding in the effort to fight child marriage; and requiring that the practice of child marriage in other countries be reported each year as part of the annual Human Rights Report.

There are also concerns that funding will be directed to NGOs that promote and perform abortion and efforts to combat child marriage could be usurped as a way to overturn pro-life laws.

Of course, this is all pretty much a lie, but the GOP would rather have girls being raped to death by their husbands who are too old to properly have sexual intercourse with them than to even support one group that might even be willing to advocate anything to do with abortion never mind the fact that many of the strict anti-abortion Christian and Muslim groups within these nations either ignore these child marriages or turn a blind eye to them. (This is not to say that all Christian and Muslim groups do this, but the kind that the GOP panders to typically do).

CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting both global poverty and preventing child marriages said:

“More than 60 million girls ages 17 and younger — many as young as 10 — are forced into marriage in developing countries. Many of these girls are married to men more than twice their age. Not only does this unacceptable practice thwart a girl’s education, it endangers her health and often locks her into a life of poverty.”

In her 1978 book Gyn/Ecology, Mary Daly has a section on child brides, and makes note of a 1922 index involving child brides in India at the time and highlighted four cases:

A. Aged 9 Day after marriage. Left femur dislocated, pelvis crushed out of shape, flesh hanging in shreds.
I. Aged about 7. Living with husband. Died in great agony after three days…
L. Aged 11. From great violence done to her person, will be a cripple for life. No use of her lower extremities.
M. Aged about 10. Crawled to hospital on her hands and knees. Has never been able to stand erect since her marriage.

Senator Dick Durbin sent out a statement criticizing the House for its failure to pass the bill in which he said “the action on the House floor stopping the Child Marriage bill tonight will endanger the lives of millions of women and girls around the world. These young girls, enslaved in marriage, will be brutalized and many will die when their young bodies are torn apart while giving birth. Those who voted to continue this barbaric practice brought shamme to Capitol Hill.”

Of course, Durbin forgot two things in his statement. The first is that many of those who voted against it are, at the core, anti-woman anyway not actually caring about the plight of American women much less the world’s women, and that they believe staunchly in the sanctity of patriarchy, but he also forgets that many of these girls will be torn apart on their wedding day when their husbands try to consummate the marriage, often against the girl’s will.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the”CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $67 million over the 2011-2015 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts. Enacting S. 987 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply to this legislation.” Which means that the cost of this bill is almost immaterial.

With regards to abortion, neither ‘family planning’ nor ‘abortion’ are mentioned.

Washington Post writer Conor Williams wrote at PostPartisan “How can Republicans explain efforts to defeat a human rights bill because of $67 million in potential spending while simultaneously pushing for a tax cut deal for wealthy Americans that will add $858 billion to the deficit? Is this at all credible?”

Representative Steve LaTourette, a supporter of the bill, lambasted his colleagues for objecting tot he measure accusing them of playing politics and saying:

Yesterday, I was on the floor, and I was a co-sponsor with a piece of legislation with the Gentlelady from Minnesota, Ms. McCollum, that would have moved money — no new money — would have moved money so that societies that are coercing young girls into marriage, we could build them latrines so they could go to school. Or we could make sure that they stay in school so they’re not forced into marriage at the age of 12 and 13.

But all of a sudden, there was a fiscal argument. When that didn’t work, then people had to add an abortion element to it. Look, this is a partisan place. I’m a Republican. I’m glad we beat their butt in the election; we’re going to be in the majority next year. But there comes a time when enough is enough, and McCollum’s bill was a good bill last night. … We should stop the nonsense, approve the bill and move on.

Senator McCollum also said:

Child marriage is a global challenge that knows no politics. Every day, it brutally destroys millions of young girls’ lives. If nothing is done, this barbaric practice will force millions more girls into a life of slavery, sex abuse, domestic violence, and servitude.

Senate Democrats and Republicans didn’t play partisan politics in this vote; they unanimously recognized that the United States can and should become a leader in the fight against child marriage. Had this legislation contained abortion provisions or authorized new spending, it never would have unanimously passed the Senate.

I thank the 229 Democrats who voted for this bill as well as the 12 Republicans. I am especially grateful for Senators Durbin, Brownback, Kerry, Lugar, and Snowe who worked to get this bipartisan agreement passed.

The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act failed last night not because of the issue, but because a handful of Republicans chose partisan politics over the basic human rights of young girls. I am truly disappointed in this result, but I’m not giving up on these children.