Why is marrying off children still legal in the United States? Only 13 out of the 50 states have
fully banned this disgusting and abusive practice; Even worse, four states actually have no minimum age for legal marriage, meaning
any age of child or infant can be married off - to any age partner (including an adult).
There is absolutely no acceptable reason to do this to a child. Sign the petition to demand that the U.S. Congress finally passes long overdue legislation to fully ban child marriage throughout the country.What's most incomprehensible about this situation is how many Republicans are pushing back against attempts to curtain or prohibit child marriage.
Their reasons for keeping child marriage legal are supposedly to preserve "parental rights" and "religious liberty." These are
not good reasons for locking children into dangerous legal prisons that lead to violence and assault. If Republican lawmakers' religion or sense of parental duties involve marrying off a literal
child, then they're obviously doing something wrong.
Child marriage is so clearly wrong, we shouldn't have to explain all the problems with it. But apparently some politicians are still not convinced, so here we go. Children - primarily young girls - who enter into marriage are 300% more likely to face intimate partner violence. They are vulnerable and often groomed to accept unthinkable situations.
Sometimes this is part of an orchestrated attempt by family members or a larger religious community to shield and protect predators, instead of holding them accountable for their crimes.Additionally, child brides face an elevated rate of being cut off from educational opportunities, dropping out of school 50% more often than their unmarried peers. Instead, they are locked into pregnancy and parenthood early. Child brides are often isolated from social support networks, feeling alone in their struggles.
And, once married off, children cannot even legally file for a divorce. Like other legal contracts, it requires an adult to change or undo it.
It's no surprise, then, that victims of child marriage
frequently attempt suicide. According to the Tahirih Justice Center, "agencies working with girls facing or trying to escape forced marriages report that nearly all have contemplated or attempted suicide."
And yet, national lawmakers in the U.S. don't seem to care. Between 2000 and 2018, around 300,000 children were married off - some as young as 10 years old. Usually the pattern was of young girls being married to adult men.
Allowing child marriage to remain legal is the same thing as legalizing child sexual abuse. There is no other way to see it. How could we possibly condemn little girls to such a terrible fate?
Sign the petition to demand the U.S. pass a nationwide ban on this horrific form of institutionalized child abuse! 