On July 16, 2026, Congress introduced the Child Marriage Prevention Act (H.R. 9758, S. 5060). The bill would create a national commission to study the issue, order a federal report on its harms, reward states raising the marriage age with Violence Against Women Act funds, ban child marriage on federal property like military bases, direct the Attorney General to draft a model law, and require that both parties to a marriage-based visa petition be at least 18. Notice that the bill cannot outlaw child marriage nationwide because marriage law is under state control. The federal government can exert pressure, but ending the practice will happen gradually, state by state.

Peer-reviewed research, though dated, reveals that from 2010 to 2014, about 6 of every 1,000 children aged 15 to 17 had married, more among girls, immigrant children, and lower-income or rural families. Notably, only one in five married children lived with their spouse; most still lived with their parents (Koski & Heymann, 2018). The U.S. stopped collecting detailed marriage records decades ago, so no single dataset shows how many children marry (Reiss, 2021). The best estimate is from Unchained At Last, which used public-records requests to gather state marriage-license data. It estimates nearly 315,000 minors married from 2000 to 2021, with 86% girls, mostly to adult men about four years older. Nearly all, 96%, were 16 or 17 (Unchained At Last, 2025). The report was published in 2025 but includes data only through 2021, highlighting a lack of current data as part of the problem.

This finding should concern lawmakers: in many states, children can legally marry at a younger age than they can legally consent to sex. Van Roost, Horn, and Koski (2022) analyzed state laws from 2000 to 2020 and marriage records from 44 states and D.C. In 14 states, some child marriages qualified as statutory rape, ranging from 1% to over 50% — that is, the share of child marriages, in a given state, that met the definition. In 33 states, a “marital exemption” excluded sex between spouses from the definition of statutory rape. Without these exemptions, child marriages that would be crimes ranged from under 1% to over 80%. The authors warned that such loopholes “may create perverse incentives for child marriage.” Advocacy figures put a scale on it. Unchained At Last counts at least 66,415 marriages that took place at an age, or with a spousal-age gap, that should have been treated as a sex crime (Unchained At Last, 2025). In plain terms: in some places, a marriage license can turn what would otherwise be a sex crime into a lawful, private act.

Defenders cite two safeguards: parental consent and judge approval, but both are weak. Often, parents push the marriage, with girls’ ability to refuse shaped by gender, age, poverty, race, and policy, making consent a formality (Equality Now & Unchained At Last, 2025). Judges are rarely given clear standards, and approval is often routine (Equality Now & Unchained At Last, 2025), leading some scholars to view minor forced marriage as child abuse needing intervention, which health providers often fail to recognize (Anitha & Gupte, 2026; Kopelman, 2016).

The damage does not end with the marriage. Child marriage hampers girls’ economic prospects; Dahl (2010) found women who marry young are as much as 31 percentage points more likely to be poor later. It also links to poorer mental health, with women married as children experiencing

higher psychiatric disorder rates (Le Strat, Dubertret, & Le Foll, 2011). Marriages in these cases are often unstable and unsafe; Wahi et al. (2019) reported most adults married early faced physical, sexual, financial, or emotional abuse.

The cruelest part is what happens when a married child wants out. The same legal system that permits the marriage often refuses to help end it. A minor trying to escape may be picked up and returned home. Many shelters cannot accept an unaccompanied minor or do so only briefly. A friend offering a bed may risk charges for harboring a runaway. Since minors can’t sign binding contracts, hiring a lawyer is difficult. Some states do not treat married minors as legally emancipated, so they keep limited child rights while bearing spousal burdens. Old enough to be married, too young to walk out.

Child marriage is documented by the U.S. as a human rights abuse abroad (U.S. Department of State, 2025), but most states still permit it at home. The gap between condemning it internationally and allowing it domestically is hard to justify.

Progress has been slow. The first two states to ban marriage before 18 without exceptions acted in 2018. By October 2025, 16 states and Washington, D.C., had done the same, leaving 34 states with the practice (Equality Now & Unchained At Last, 2025). Oklahoma became the 17th state to remove all exceptions in May 2026, effective November, bringing the total to 17 states plus D.C. Child marriage remains legal in 33 states, with California, Mississippi, and New Mexico setting no minimum age (Unchained At Last, 2026). Where all exceptions are removed, no legal pathway to marry before 18 remains, because no consent clause or judicial waiver is left to exploit.

Three steps could close the gap: set the minimum marriage age at 18 with no exceptions, end exemptions allowing a marriage to erase sex crimes, and ensure married minors have a real escape. We know how to end this; now it depends on Congress and 33 statehouses.

References

Anitha, S., & Gupte, M. (2026). Conceptualising coercion in child/forced marriage through an intersectional lens: Narratives of survivors and practitioners in the US. Social & Legal Studies, 35(1), 121–142. https://doi.org/10.1177/09646639251325493

Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2026, H.R. 9758, 119th Cong. (2026). https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9758 (Senate companion: S. 5060).

Dahl, G. B. (2010). Early teen marriage and future poverty. Demography, 47(3), 689–718. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.0.0120

Equality Now, & Unchained At Last. (2025). Legal gaps and enduring harm: Analysing the persistence of child marriage in the United States. Equality Now.

Kopelman, L. M. (2016). The forced marriage of minors: A neglected form of child abuse. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 44(1), 173–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073110516644208

Koski, A., & Heymann, J. (2018). Child marriage in the United States: How common is the practice, and which children are at greatest risk? Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 50(2), 59–65. https://doi.org/10.1363/psrh.12055

Le Strat, Y., Dubertret, C., & Le Foll, B. (2011). Child marriage in the United States and its association with mental health in women. Pediatrics, 128(3), 524–530. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2011-0961

Reiss, F. (2021). Child marriage in the United States: Prevalence and implications. Journal of Adolescent Health, 69(6S), S8–S10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.07.001

Unchained At Last. (2025). United States’ child marriage problem: Study findings 2000–2021. https://www.unchainedatlast.org/united-states-child-marriage-problem-study-findings-through-2021/

Unchained At Last. (2026, May 13). Oklahoma just banned child marriage! https://www.unchainedatlast.org/oklahoma-just-banned-child-marriage/

U.S. Department of State. (2025). Country reports on human rights practices (2024). https://www.state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/

Van Roost, K., Horn, M., & Koski, A. (2022). Child marriage or statutory rape? A comparison of law and practice across the United States. Journal of Adolescent Health, 70(3S), S72–S77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.10.023

Wahi, A., Zaleski, K. L., Lampe, J., Bevan, P., & Koski, A. (2019). The lived experience of child marriage in the United States. Social Work in Public Health, 34(3), 201–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/19371918.2019.1575312