According to data from Unchained at Last, a nonprofit organization that supports women and girls in forced marriages, approximately 300,000 children and teenagers were legally married in the United States between 2000 and 2018. One woman, Genevieve Meyer, shares her story of being coerced into marriage at the age of 14 by her mother and a 42-year-old neighbor. Meyer’s mother believed that Meyer had seduced the neighbor and decided that marriage would be a way to avoid criminal charges. In exchange, Meyer’s mother received a share of the neighbor’s tree-trimming business profits.
The issue of child marriage is prevalent in the United States, with almost 300,000 minors getting married between 2000 and 2018, according to a study by Unchained at Last. The study utilized marriage certificate data and found that most of the minors were between the ages of 16 and 17 when they got married. However, there have been cases of children as young as 10 being forced into marriage. The study also revealed that 86 percent of the minors who married were girls, and most of them married adult men.
Child marriage was legal in all 50 states until 2017. Since then, 10 states have passed legislation banning the practice, starting with Delaware. Other states, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and most recently Michigan, have also raised the minimum age for marriage to 18. However, more than half of the states still allow 16- and 17-year-olds to marry with parental consent, and some states even allow children under 16 to marry with judicial approval or if the girl is pregnant.
The issue of child marriage is not limited to state laws, as federal loopholes also contribute to its continuation. For example, there is no minimum age requirement to petition for a foreign spouse or fiancé visa, allowing older men living abroad to exploit young girls in the United States for visa purposes. Despite efforts to pass legislation banning child marriage, there is often resistance from both conservative and progressive voices. Some argue that teen marriage is part of the state’s culture or that setting a minimum age for marriage infringes on religious freedom or reproductive rights.
Advocates against child marriage emphasize that these marriages are often a guise for abuse and control of children. Minors require parental consent or judicial permission to get married, but their voices are often ignored during the process. They argue that child marriage is not an exercise of young people’s rights but a loophole in the law that allows for exploitation. Genevieve Meyer’s story exemplifies this, as she was coerced into marriage without fully understanding the implications.
While progress has been made in banning child marriage in some states, there is still much work to be done to protect vulnerable children and teenagers from forced marriages in the United States.
