SALT LAKE CITY — Elizabeth Roundy hasn't seen some of her children in years.
"I miss them every day and pray that we'll be able to find them and return them home," she said in an interview with FOX 13 News.
Roundy, an ex-member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, has custody rights. But they have disappeared and are believed to be back in the group. Some of the children were the subject of an AMBER Alert in Idaho last year. In 2024, she expressed concerns that one could be caught up in an underage marriage within the FLDS Church.
Concerns about children being taken out of state to be forced into a marriage has prompted Rep. Melissa Garff Ballard, R-North Salt Lake, to file House Bill 103. The legislation would create a crime of unlawfully marrying a minor, traveling out of state to marry a minor and transporting a minor for an illegal marriage.
"We have report after report of Utah being the crossroads of drugs, human trafficking, sex trafficking, and right now with social media? It's so prevalent with individuals coercing minors to get married or to 'meet me and we'll get married so that you can come and get away from your families,'" said Rep. Ballard. "And it's very manipulative."
Rep. Ballard said her bill is more broadly aimed at human trafficking and impacts from predatory behavior on social media, but she acknowledged it could impact some polygamous communities where underage marriages have been a problem. The FLDS Church, under its leader, Warren Jeffs, has seen prosecutions for child-bride marriages.
Rep. Ballard said she is not intending to raise the marriage age in Utah, where it is 16 with parental consent and a judge's permission.
"You go out of state to deliberately go around Utah laws, whether it's with a Utah minor or a minor from another state and then come back — that should be against the law," she said. "If you are going around Utah marriage laws. I'm not changing any of the Utah marriage laws. I'm just saying, if you are trying to go around the marriage laws, or if you are someone who comes and takes a minor out of our state for those purposes, that's a problem. This is really to protect Utah minors."
Anti-human trafficking groups, as well as advocates who work with those in polygamous communities that FOX 13 News contacted, said they were studying Rep. Ballard's bill and have not yet taken a position on it.
But Roundy said she believes the legislation could help some people.
"I'm really grateful that people are taking the initiative and trying to help us out, and it's my hope and prayer it'll help to protect all our young children from all these underage marriages that are illegal and terrible," she said.
The bill will be considered when the Utah State Legislature begins meeting next week.
"This is really to say we do not want you in Utah to violate Utah marriage laws or try to go around them by just taking a minor out of state and then returning," Rep. Ballard said. "We do not want you to take advantage of minors in our state, child trafficking, sex trafficking, and we want to help protect them."
