"You are only 18? And you want to get married?", I asked as part of the Pre-Marriage interviews I conduct. "Why?"
"We love each other, Father", replied the 18 year old teen-ager who wanted to get married.
"Your boyfriend is only 19 years old!", I said, my voice hardly audible.
Their filled out forms say that both have stopped studying. They have known each other for only four months. Occupation? There was a blank space in the form.
"Have you ever had a job?", I asked.
Silence.
"How about your boyfriend?"
More silence.
I looked at her. She looked down. Her eyes avoiding me.
Now I know why.
"Since when ...?"
"I am three months pregnant, Father." She said, almost in a whisper. Then the tears came.
At the corner of my eye, I saw her parents looking in through the window of the office. Concerned and worried looks in their faces.
"My father insists that we get married. I brought shame to our family." She cried.
"The only solution is marriage." She said, looking outside the window.
Marriage is NOT the solution. Forcing these two unprepared and emotionally immature young people to marriage is not solving the problem of pregnancy. It is putting them literally in the lion's den.
But how many marriages break up after only a few years -- and sometimes, months, only -- because it is believed that marriage is the only solution to an unexpected pregnancy?
