07/27/2026
"She was married at 13 after she was s*xually assaulted. She got pregnant and was forced by her parents and small-town community to marry the person who assaulted her, who then became her abuser."
Child marriages are so often wrapped up in gender-based violence. Young people deserve to be protected.
https://ow.ly/4NM650ZrWP6
A bill that aims to prevent child marriage was introduced in both the House and Senate last week.
The legislation was first introduced in 2024 and is the first concerted effort by Congress to condemn and prevent child marriage domestically.
Under the U.S. Constitution, only individual states can set minimum age requirements for marriage. The federal government has no authority over family or domestic law, but it does have control over immigration laws related to spousal and fiancé visas.
This bill would act as “a practical roadmap” for states to end child marriage, Moore said.
“I don’t think people realize that child marriages do occur in the United States, so I want to build awareness with this bill,” Rep. Gwen Moore, a co-sponsor of the bill, told The 19th. “And also it’s just part of my wheelhouse of trying to stop violence against women. This is just yet another piece of that puzzle.”
About 300,000 minors — the vast majority of them girls — were legally married in the United States between 2000 and 2018. Prior to 2018, child marriage was legal in all 50 states.
“We must enact this legislation at a federal level to protect the future of hundreds of thousands of young girls who have been stripped of their independence,” Sen. Dick Durbin said in a statement.
✍️: Mariel Padilla, general assignment reporter
📸: Emily Scherer for The 19th
https://bit.ly/4pFRruQ
