Child Marriage Prevention Act
Support Long Overdue Federal Action!
While the United States has long supported efforts to end child marriage internationally, we have failed to take meaningful steps to address this issue in our own backyard. The Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2026, first introduced in 2024, is groundbreaking federal legislation that represents the first concerted effort by the U. S. Congress to condemn and prevent child marriage domestically.
Child marriage is a significant problem in the United States that overwhelmingly affects underage girls who are married to adult men, often with dire consequences for their life outcomes, including physical, emotional and sexual abuse, poverty, lower educational attainment, and compromised mental and physical health.
Data shows that between 2000 and 2018, more than 300,000 minors (i.e., under the age of 18) were married in the United States, most of whom were 16 or 17 years of age. Some of these marriages included girls as young as 10 and girls who were married to men that were decades older. In addition, between the years 2007 and 2017, more than 8,500 marriage-based visa petitions involving at least one minor were approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the majority of which involved U.S. citizen men seeking to bring minor girls from overseas as brides or fiancées.
The State of Child Marriage in the United States
While the United States has long supported efforts to end child marriage internationally, we have failed to take meaningful steps to address this issue in our own backyard. The Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2026, first introduced in 2024, is groundbreaking federal legislation that represents the first concerted effort by the U. S. Congress to condemn and prevent child marriage domestically. It’s time to change that!
Child marriage is associated with:
50%
greater likelihood of dropping out of high school
3x
higher risk of intimate partner violence
23%
higher risk of serious health conditions
The Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2026 Sends a Strong Message
The Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2026 would accelerate critically needed progress towards the elimination of child marriage right here at home and demands urgent action. Among other provisions, it would:
- Establish a National Commission to Combat Child Marriage to study, evaluate, and report on eliminating child marriage in the U. S.
- Instruct the Attorney General to promulgate a model state statute that prohibits child marriage.
- Set minimum age requirements for U.S. petitioners and foreign beneficiaries of spouse and fiancée visas to prevent the exploitation of children in our marriage-based visa program under the guise of marriage.
- Repeal the dangerous consummation requirement for a “proxy marriage” which incentivizes rape and instead requires parties to have met in person in the two years prior to the ceremony.
- Provide states that have already banned child marriage with increased VAWA grant funding.
- Establish a competitive grant program for states to create dedicated task forces to examine and make comprehensive policy recommendations to end child marriage. These grants will provide critical support to advocates and survivors in states that have not yet ended child marriage, supporting urgently needed local reform movements.
- Prohibit child marriage from occurring in or on property owned or funded by the federal government (such as military bases)
Child marriage overwhelmingly affects underage girls who are married to adult men, often with dire consequences for their life outcomes,” said Senator Dick Durbin. “The bill builds on the work of countless survivors and advocates across the country to ban child marriage in the United States. We must enact this legislation at a federal level to protect the future of hundreds of thousands of young girls who have been stripped of their independence.”
The practice of child marriage should not exist anywhere, especially not in the U.S. Young girls are put on a harmful trajectory in life that keeps them from controlling their own futures when they enter, or are forced to enter, into these marriages. I am proud to partner with Senator Durbin to protect young people from this predatory and harmful practice. Our legislation takes a critical first step toward ending child marriage and protecting our children,” said Representative Gwen Moore
Girls are only as safe as the laws designed to protect them,” said Casey Carter Swegman, Director of Public Policy at Tahirih Justice Center. “For years, the United States has condemned child marriage abroad while failing to address the ways our own laws leave children here and around the world vulnerable to exploitation under the guise of marriage. The Child Marriage Prevention Act is a critical step toward changing that. By supporting states to take action to end child marriage and closing legal loopholes that can be used to exploit children, this bill sends a clear message: child marriage is wrong no matter where it occurs and we must end it! We are incredibly grateful to Senator Durbin and Congresswoman Moore for their leadership and to the many survivor advocates that have inspired and informed this urgently needed legislation.”
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The Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2026 would accelerate critically needed progress towards the elimination of child marriage right here at home and demands urgent action. Among other provisions, it would:
- Full bill text available on Congress.gov: S.______ and H.R. _______
- Section-by-section
- One Pager Provided by Senator Durbin
- Tahirih Justice Center Press Release
- Explainer – Immigration Provisions of the Child Marriage Prevention Act
- Time to Lead – Tahirih report on the role of the federal government in ending child marriage in the United States
Hear from Survivors
I was only 14 and fresh out of foster care when my parent decided to marry me off to a 43-year-old to avoid his prosecution. I felt powerless and without a future, just one of the many children married off each year in the US—a country that boasts democracy and justice,” said Genevieve Meyer, a child marriage survivor and advocate. “Ignoring the issue of child marriage contradicts our stated values of equality. This is why I back the Child Marriage Protection Act—it’s about human rights and safeguarding our children from harm.”
As a child marriage survivor, I am very grateful to Senator Durbin and Congresswoman Gwen Moore for introducing the Child Marriage Prevention Act. I was 16 when I was married off by my mother to a man in his 30s who had been in a position of authority over me. Federal reforms are critical for ensuring child predators can no longer hide their offenses behind a marriage license,” said Donna Simmons, a child marriage survivor advocate.
I envision a United States without child marriage, visa exploitation, abandonment, and abuse. This is why Congress needs to pass The Child Marriage Prevention Act,” said Sasha Taylor, a survivor advocate who was forced to marry when she was 15 years old.
Changing this legislation would change so many lives. We would be preventing the legal laundering of children through our immigration system. We are securing the childhoods of these girls by making sure they are safe,” said Naila Amin, a survivor who was forced to marry at 13 years old to an adult man seeking a spousal visa.
Several of my childhood friends were sent to another country to marry but I was married here in the United States at just fifteen years old to a thirty-eight-year-old with only my mother’s signature. It pains me to know there are still many states who allow child marriage. Knowing that children are also being exploited and trafficked due to loopholes in immigration laws breaks my heart. This problem has been ignored for far too long. The introduction of the Child Marriage Prevention Act gives me hope that vulnerable children, like I once was, will finally be protected and offered a future of opportunity, opportunity this country prides itself on,” said Brigitte Combs, a child marriage survivor advocate.
Endorsements
Survivor Endorsements
Dr. Judy Wiegand
Lauren Van Wagoner
Naila Amin
Sasha Taylor
Genevieve Meyer
Donna Simmons
Brigitte Combs
If you are facing or fleeing a child marriage or know someone who is, please email FMI@tahirih.org or call 571-282-6161. For more information, visit preventforcedmarriage.org.