About 300,000 children and teens were legally married in the United States between 2000 and 2018, according to data from Unchained at Last, a nonprofit that works to help women and girls in forced marriages.
Laws prohibiting minors to marry have struggled to pass. Only 10 states have a law prohibiting people under 18 from marrying.
Pushback to setting 18 as a minimum age for marriage comes from both conservative and progressive groups.
I married my first wife when she was 16 and I was 18, because she was put in foster care due to her mom beating the living shit out of her constantly. We did it as a method of emancipating her so she could get out of the system and adopt her sister who has cerebral palsy, and they had separated in the system.
The foster system is alllllll sorts of fucked. My situation is pretty unique though, and I’m not arguing that underage people should be allowed to marry. That shit is wild, and it’s mostly religiously based.
A bit unrelated but you are a legend for doing that. Good on you for helping save some kids. And agreed, the foster system is broken in thousands of pieces.
And that’s very noble of you, but in general, these children are girls being married to much older men, sanctified by their church. And that’s what Republicans want to preserve as part of their Handmaid’s Tale worldview.