Values Voters

If you were to discover your 13-year-old daughter were pregnant by a 22-year-old man, what do you think your response would be? There are lots of possible responses—the least of which is making sure your 13-year-old isn’t having sex with adult men, and the other extreme being turning over the 22-year-old to the cops for statutory rape. I’m sure plenty of people would probably discuss abortion and/or adoption as an option as well, since becoming a parent at 13 isn’t a particularly good idea for either the 13-year-old or her baby.

In any case, I sincerely doubt that the most popular decision in response to this scenario would be sending your daughter across state lines with a pedophile to marry him (link):

A 22-year-old man faces criminal charges in Nebraska for having sex with an underage 13-year-old girl, although he legally married her in Kansas after she became pregnant.

The man's lawyer said the couple, with their families' support, "made a responsible decision to try to cope with the problem."

Matthew Koso, 22, was charged Monday with first-degree sexual assault, punishable by up to 50 years in prison. He was released on $7,500 bail pending an Aug. 17 preliminary hearing.

After the girl became pregnant, her mother gave permission in May for Koso to take the young woman to Kansas, which allows minors to get married with parental consent. The girl is now 14 and seven months pregnant.

"The idea ... is repugnant to me," said Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning. "These people made the decision to send their ... 14-year-old daughter to Kansas to marry a pedophile."

He said the marriage is valid, thanks to the "ridiculous" Kansas law, "but it doesn't matter. I'm not going to stand by while a grown man ... has a relationship with a 13-year-old -- now 14-year-old -- girl."

A responsible decision to try to cope with the problem?! Oh, yeah—getting married and having a baby at 14 is the best way to cope with a pregnancy. Let’s try to ruin as many lives as possible in the process of saving a pregnancy, the result of which is a baby that now has to be raised by a child and a pedophile.

What the hell is wrong with this girl’s mother? (The father isn't around.) Her daughter is still a child, and no matter how precocious she may be, nor whether her physical development seems to indicate a bodily maturity beyond her years, there’s no way that a sexual relationship between a 13-year-old and a 22-year-old is appropriate.

The truly pathetic part is that the mother probably defends her decision by saying it’s what her daughter wants. Well, 13-year-olds want a lot of things that aren’t good for them; telling them no is called parenting. Of course, perhaps if there were active parenting going on in that household, the 13-year-old wouldn’t have been having sex in the first place—or would have been having safe sex, at least. (I wonder, as an aside, if this girl had abstinence-only sex education…?)

You know a situation is totally nutty when you find yourself on the same side of an issue as Jon Bruning.