Forced and child marriage in Texas is a serious problem with a simple, first-step solution — ensuring that only legal adults empowered to advocate for themselves can enter the legal contract and potentially lifelong commitment that marriage entails. Read our backgrounder to learn more about the child marriage problem in Texas, how the current laws fail to prioritize child protection, and Tahirih’s recommendations to address the problem.

This chart, which was developed by the Tahirih Justice Center with pro bono assistance from Hogan Lovells US LLP, serves as a resource for understanding the state legal regimes that permit child marriages to happen in the United States.

Read this backgrounder to learn more about child marriage in the United States and the laws that allow it to persist.

This backgrounder provides guidance on how best to leverage the new Virginia law to protect children from child marriage.