Hatch:
‘I’m Not Here to Justify Polygamy’
The
Salt Lake Tribune, April 19, 2003
By the Associated Press
ST. GEORGE—Sen. Orrin Hatch,
attending a town meeting in southern Utah, found himself pressed by
anti-polygamy activists to take a stand against the practice.
Bob Curran, director of the anti-polygamy group Help the
Child Brides, asked the Utah Republican on Thursday, why, only an hour away,
“thugs” can rape children and nothing is done to stop it.
“No one should be raping a child . . . we need to
protect our children,” Hatch said.
Curran said girls as young as 13 and 14 were forced into
plural marriages with older men in the nearby twin polygamous communities of
Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.
Another speaker, Sonya Blancke, said she was dismayed
polygamists were able to break the laws.
Hatch said, “I wouldn’t throw accusations around
unless you know they’re true.
“I’m not here to justify polygamy,” he said. “All
I can say is, I know people in Hildale who are polygamists who are very fine
people. You come and show me evidence of children being abused there and
I’ll get involved. Bring the evidence to me.”
Hatch said he could not take unsubstantiated claims and
enforce law, and he would not “sit here and judge anybody just because they
live differently than me. There will be laws on the books, but these are very
complicated issues,” Hatch said.
Polygamy is illegal in Utah and a law enacted by the 2003
Legislature created the new crime of child bigamy—marrying a second wife who
is under the age of 18—and made it punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The marrying of teenage girls is common in some of
Utah’s isolated polygamist communities, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff,
whose office drafted the legislation, has said.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints once
sanctioned plural marriage but discarded the practice in 1890. However, there
are believed to be tens of thousands of polygamists in Utah who continue the
tradition and say they are following fundamental doctrine. The LDS church
excommunicates them.
The issue is sensitive in Utah, where many residents,
including Gov. Mike Leavitt, have polygamous ancestors.
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