Lawmakers botch sex law changes

Sunday, July 09, 2006

What were our legislators thinking? In a recent bill enacted into law the S.C. General Assembly made it perfectly legal for teenagers as young as 14 to have consensual sex with other teens.

As part of the law that was supposed to provide harsher penalties for those convicted of second offenses of molesting children, the legislators actually loosened up laws on consensual sex for teens. What message are we sending to our children and to older teens who could prey on them?

The new law allows for consensual sex for 14- and 15-year olds with teens who are 16 to 18. And it has a provision where adults may use a “mistake of age” clause as a defense for having sex with underage teens. If a person believes that he is having sex with a person of age, that defense can be used if the person is actually not of age.

Rather than shaping a law that clamps down on illegal sexual activity, the General Assembly has relaxed the statute and appears to be almost pushing children into sexual activity. This is an appalling situation which must be corrected at the earliest possible juncture.

This is another example of our legislature hastily pushing through laws at the last moment without having important aspects of them publicly reviewed and debated. Had the people of South Carolina been aware of this element of the legislation, they would have raised a hue and cry to their legislators. Hopefully, they are doing that now even though the measure is currently the law of the state.

Laws such as this do no good and only make our state foolish in the eyes of our neighbors as well as the good citizens of the Palmetto State.

That part of the law must be repealed the moment legislators report for the 2007 legislative session.