As we at Unchained At Last continue our work to end child marriage in the US, we need something from you: We need you to make your voice heard. We need you to tell legislators and governors that you, too, demand an end to child marriage.

We made it easy for you to do. Just click here to submit pre-filled emails to all the right people.

America’s child marriage problem

Child marriage, or marriage in which one or both parties is under age 18, is a human-rights abuse that “produces devastating repercussions for a girl’s life, effectively ending her childhood,” according to the US State Department.

Shockingly, though, while most US states set 18 as the minimum marriage age, exceptions in every state allow child marriage.

We are in the process of retrieving data from all 50 states on the number of children wed recently. The project is not yet complete, but the numbers already are alarming: At least tens of thousands of children, as young as 12, were married in the US in the last decade. Almost all the children were girls, and almost all were married to adult men – many at ages or with age differences that constitute statutory rape.

The dangers of child marriage are clear. Children can easily be forced into or trapped within a marriage, because they face overwhelming legal and practical barriers if they try to leave home, access a shelter, retain an attorney or bring a legal action such as a divorce.

Furthermore, marriage before age 18 undermines girls’ health, education and economic opportunities and increases their risk of experiencing violence. Read more.

We cannot allow this human-rights abuse to continue.

Legislative solution

We started a national conversation about America’s child marriage problem with an op-ed in the New York Timesin October 2015. Since then, four states introduced legislation to end child marriage:

• New Jersey: A3091 is pending, and legislators need your encouragement to pass it.
• Maryland: The legislative session ended in April, before HB911 had a chance to pass. The bill needs to be reintroduced in an upcoming session.
• New York: The legislative session ended last week, before A8563 was passed. Asw. Amy Paulin promised to reintroduce the bill next session.
• Virginia: SB415/HB703 was signed into law in March, thanks to the hard work of Tahirih Justice Center. The law allows marriage before age 18 only for emancipated minors ages 16 and 17 (with strict criteria a judge must consider before emancipating a child for marriage).

With your help, we hope eventually to pass legislation in every US state ending all child marriage, with no exceptions.

How you can help

Please make your voice heard to convince legislators of the importance of this legislation.

Also, get others to make their voices heard. Forward this email to at least five friends and ask them to submit emails too, and post messages like this on social media: <I sent emails via @unchainedatlast urging legislators to #endchildmarriage & I hope you’ll #makeyourvoiceheard too! www.unchainedatlast.org>

If enough of us make our voices heard, legislators and governors will have no choice but to listen. Let’s get the bill passed in New Jersey, and then go state by state until we end child marriage in the US.