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.
Surprised you’re the first to bring that up (and that I didn’t get more downvotes on the post). I don’t think many progressives are out here defending child marriage, although as another commenter shared on this thread in their personal story, there are rare occasions where it may have an upside. The groups named in the story aren’t usually ones you’d think of as aiding and abetting child abuse.