From Equality Now: 5 Things You Should Know about Child Marriage and The Law In the United States

An  area of increasing concern 

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It’s Legal In the Vast Majority Of States

Only four states, New Jersey, Delaware, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, have laws in place that prohibit marriage under age 18, with no exceptions. The remaining states have no prohibition against marriage for children under 18, or have bills that limit, but still permit, child marriage. 20 states have no required minimum age for marriage, while other states set different minimum legal ages for marriage for girls and for boys. Massachusetts, for example, sets the minimum age of marriage for boys at 14, while the minimum age for girls is 12.

Exceptions Make It Easier For Children To Be Married

The consent of a parent or guardian is among the most common exceptions that allow children under 18 to be married, while judicial approval is often needed for a child under age 16 to be married. Exceptions like these are not as rare as you might think, and have seen children as young as 11 issued a marriage license.

How these exceptions are enforced not only varies depending on the state but, in several states, can also vary depending on a child’s gender, according to the Tahirih Justice Center. In Mississippi, judicial approval is required for boys under age 17, but only for girls under age 15.

Some states have lenient residency requirements, while others have no residency requirement for minors coming from out of state to be married. In one instance, a father from Idaho, where judicial approval is required for children 16 and younger, drove his pregnant 14 year-old daughter to Missouri so she could be married to her 24 year-old rapist. Because at the time Missouri required judicial consent for children 14 and younger and had no residency requirement, the marriage was able to take place.

Federal and State Law Allows For a “Marriage Exception” To Statutory Rape

Statutory rape occurs when one of the parties is below the age of consent. A minor cannot legally give their consent to sexual activity, and so that activity does not have to take place by force in order to be considered rape. Marriage is a valid defense against statutory rape with 12-15 year olds at the federal level, as well as within a majority of U.S. states. These laws vary by state, but all make it legal for an adult to have sex and sexual contact with a child who is below the age of consent in that state if they are married to that child at the time (or, in one state, Indiana, if an adult and a child have ever been married to each other). Several states also have specific exceptions for cases involving pregnancy, enabling a marriage between a pregnant child and her rapist, providing sexual predators with an incentive to force a child to marry them.