(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Organizations that have been advocating to end child marriage in the U.S. are actively seeking Republicans in Congress and state legislatures to support ending the practice. They argue the issue is nonpartisan and children, especially girls, should be protected.
So far, only Democrats in Congress have sponsored the Child Marriage Prevention Act. It was first filed in 2024 and recently refiled by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, with Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York as cosponsors. U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-WI, filed companion legislation.
The bill is the first concerted effort by Congress “to condemn and prevent child marriage domestically,” the Tahirih Justice Center says. It and other survivor-led organizations have been advocating to end the practice.
“For years, the United States has condemned child marriage abroad while failing to address the ways our own laws leave children here and around the world vulnerable to exploitation under the guise of marriage,” Casey Carter Swegman, director of Public Policy at the Tahirih Justice Center, said. “The Child Marriage Prevention Act is a critical step toward changing that. By supporting states to take action to end child marriage and closing legal loopholes that can be used to exploit children, this bill sends a clear message: child marriage is wrong no matter where it occurs, and we must end it.”
The bill would set minimum age requirements for U.S. petitioners and foreign beneficiaries of spouse and fiancée visas to prevent the exploitation of children in marriage-based visa programs under the guise of marriage. It would prohibit child marriage from being performed on property owned or funded by the federal government, including U.S. military bases worldwide, among other measures, according to the bill language.
It also would repeal a consummation requirement for a “proxy marriage” which has been found to incentivize and justify statutory rape. Federal law, 18 USC Section 243(c)(2), legally allowed a marital defense for statutory rape, which was removed in the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022. A similar defense remains in U.S. Military Code 10 U.S.C. Section 920b and some state law exceptions, Equality Now explains. They must be repealed because they “effectively turn child marriage into a ‘get out of jail free’ card for predators,” it argues.
According to an UnChained At Last report, between 2000 and 2021, nearly 315,000 children were legally entered into marriage across the U.S. The vast majority were girls wed to adult men.
The bill states that girls as young as 10 were married to adult men in the U.S.; most were 16 and 17.
The bill also raises concerns about girls forced into marriage who aren’t able to file protective orders, file for divorce and have limited legal rights because they are minors. It also lists negative consequences for girls, including limited educational opportunities, poverty, mental and physical health issues as well as abuse and violence.
“Protecting children from abuse and exploitation is not a partisan issue and has always been a priority on both sides of the aisle,” Tahirih Justice Center Communications Director Rachel Pulda told The Center Square. “Across the country, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have championed bills to ban child marriage: Republicans in Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia and Democrats in Delaware, New York and Virginia. For the past decade, state legislators have worked across the aisle to strengthen state marriage-age laws and enact complete bans on child marriage. That progress demonstrates that legislators from across the political spectrum agree that children should not be placed at risk of abuse, trafficking, or exploitation under the guise of marriage.
“We are actively seeking Republican co-sponsors for the federal Child Marriage Prevention Act because this legislation can and should have broad bipartisan support. The question is not whether one party or another should address child marriage; it is whether Congress will come together to protect children. With child marriage still legal in most states and federal immigration loopholes continuing to expose children to exploitation, the need for bipartisan action is urgent.”
“The U.S. is obligated to address child marriage under the international human rights treaties it has ratified, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” UnChained says. “In 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Committee expressed concern that child marriage remained legal in most of the U.S., and it urged the U.S. to “adopt measures at all levels in order to prohibit marriage under the age of 18.’”
Advocacy groups are calling on state legislatures to enact a minimum age requirement of 18 for marriage with no exceptions and for Congress to act.
The District of Columbia and 17 states have enacted such a ban: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Oklahoma was the latest to do so this year. Its new law goes into effect Nov. 1.
Child marriage remains legal in 33 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
This is down from 49 in 2018, when Delaware and New Jersey were the first two states to prohibit child marriage under age 18 with no exceptions, The Center Square reported.
In 2019, Nevada attempted to pass a total ban but limited the ban to under age 17 with a requirement for parental or judicial consent for 17 year olds.
Three states – California, Mississippi and New Mexico – have no minimum age requirement for marriage.
