America has a child marriage epidemic--and it's even worse than you think [View all]

[AnrothElf]

With more than 300,000 documented child marriages since 2000, Republicans are fighting to keep it that way

Qasim Rashid
May 15, 2024

First, let’s truly understand how bad this epidemic is in the United States. Despite widespread condemnation and international treaties against it, child marriage continues in the United States unabated. As reported in numerous outlets including the Washington Post and The Independent:

At least 207,468 minors married in the US between 2000 and 2015, according to data compiled by Unchained At Last, a group campaigning to abolish child marriage, and investigative documentary series Frontline. The true figure is likely to be much higher because 10 states provided no or incomplete statistics.

The youngest wedded were three 10-year-old girls in Tennessee who married men aged 24, 25 and 31 in 2001. The youngest groom was an 11-year-old who married a 27-year-old woman in the same state in 2006. Children as young as 12 were granted marriage licences in Alaska, Louisiana and South Carolina, while 11 other states allowed 13-year-olds to wed. More than 1,000 children aged 14 or under were granted marriage licences.

And the problem persists. Unchained At Last conducted another study in 2021 and found more than 300,000 documented cases of child marriage, as reported by Rolling Stone ...

Read more: https://qasimrashid.substack.com/p/america-has-a-child-marriage-epidemicand