You have put your finger on the problem. If someone fathers illegitimate kids by ten different women that is perfectly legal. If he purports to marry them, however, and support the kids, that is a felony and he goes to prison.
Exactly, but it’s worse than just this narrow issue.
The Edmunds-Tucker Acts and subsequent bills paved the way for government intrusion into every aspect of our lives and there is a direct line of thought leading to homosexual marriage being approved by our elites in our day.
The loss of history is a great crime among a people. In America it is a direct result of the following government interventions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrill_Anti-Bigamy_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmunds_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmunds%E2%80%93Tucker_Act
An obscure and tiny Christian sect is targeted for a “crime” that was practiced Biblically, throughout history and by both American Indians and white settlers on the frontier. Why?
Is it any wonder then that the progressive movement, seeing this action followed quickly on its heels? How about compulsory schooling to stop those dangerous Papists? How about the temperance movement leading to Prohibition? Intrusion on the most intimate human relationship got us to where we are today with Big Government.