The Nation discussed the findings of the Tahirih Justice Center’s report on child marriage in the United States, “Falling Through the Cracks: How Laws Allow Child Marriage to Happen in Today’s America,” in this story on efforts to raise the minimum age of marriage across the country.
“According to research by the advocacy group Tahirih Justice Center, in about half of states marriage well below the age of 18 can be legally sanctioned, typically under arbitrary rules of consent and lax legal review. Roughly 200,000 people, the vast majority of them girls, have been married under such policies between 2000 and 2015,” said The Nation’s Michelle Chen.
Tahirih’s Senior Counsel for Policy and Strategy, Jeanne Smoot, is quoted in the article, explaining how states’ current laws fail to protect girls from abuse and exploitation.
