Maine has been the last state in New England where child marriage remains legal, but thanks to our advocacy, that may change: The Maine House of Representatives just passed the bill we have been promoting to ban all marriage before age 18, no exceptions!
The bill now goes to the senate for a vote, bringing Maine one step closer to banning a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives.
It’s official: Child marriage is no longer legal in our nation’s capital, thanks to our advocacy!
Congress has enacted legislation Councilmember Brooke Pinto introduced, we promoted relentlessly, and Mayor Muriel Bowser signed, to make the marriage age in Washington, D.C., 18, no exceptions.
So we are now 13 states, two territories and one district down in our push to ban an archaic, harmful practice that destroys girls’ lives and creates a nightmarish legal trap for them. That’s a big deal for the 9.5 million girls who live in those 13 states and D.C.
Alongside our allies in the Washington, D.C. Coalition to End Child Marriage that we co-convened with DC Rape Crisis Center, The Person Center and Tahirih Justice Center, as well as legislative champions like Councilmember Pinto, we met one-on-one with every member of the D.C. council. We testified at legislative hearings and submitted memos of support, and we recruited our allies to do the same. We compiled in-depth legal research conducted on a pro bono basis by the law firms White & Case and DLA Piper. We launched email campaigns to target council members.
And it worked!
You made this victory possible, too, if you took action on our email campaigns, shared our posts on social media or supported us financially.
Prior to passing this new legislation to ban child marriage, dangerous legal loopholes allowed a parent or guardian to enter a 16- or 17-year-old into marriage in D.C. with nothing more than a signature, without any input required from the child, and without any real legal recourse for a child who does not want to marry.
Our research found that some 110 minors were entered into marriage in D.C. between 2000 and 2023 — and two thirds of those were girls wed to adult men.
Furthermore, child marriage creates a nightmarish legal trap that destroys nearly every aspect of an American girl’s life. There’s a reason the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.”
D.C. has now joined 13 states (Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Michigan, Washington, Virginia and New Hampshire) and two territories (American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands) in embracing the simple, commonsense legislative solution we are pushing in all 50 U.S. states to ban child marriage, without exceptions. Such legislation harms no one, costs nothing and ends a human rights abuse.
Only 37 states and three territories to go. We promise to keep fighting for the more than 27 million girls who live in those states and territories, if you promise to keep partnering with us. Please donate now.
The Washington, D.C. Coalition to End Child Marriage includes:
Less than a decade ago, child marriage was legal in every U.S. state and territory.
But, as Chelsea Clinton pointed out this week at the event we cosponsored at the United Nations, our relentless advocacy has changed that.
“Thanks to the heroic and optimistic efforts of Fraidy [Reiss] and her team at Unchained At Last, at least now we can say we have banned child marriage in 13 states,” Chelsea told the more than 200 people who attended the event as part of Commission on the Status of Women.
Watch the full conversation here or by clicking the image below.
Sponsored by:
We have good news and some bad news as we continue our relentless advocacy to convince every U.S. state to ban child marriage, a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives.
First, the good news:
The bad news:
Ending child marriage in the U.S. is not easy. But we promise that, with you as our ally, we will keep fighting until we achieve that goal. Because girls matter. Donate now.
P.S. Have you registered yet for our United Nations event with Chelsea Clinton next week?
As the United Nations launches the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women – the U.N.’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment – we at Unchained At Last are launching a hybrid side event alongside Sierra Leone and the Dominican Republic.
Join us and Chelsea Clinton, along with our global allies to talk about successes and setbacks in the global effort to ban child marriage and achieve gender equality by year 2030. Despite agreements like U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, much of the world still falls short in protecting girls from forced and child marriage. Ending these human rights abuses cannot wait another 30 years. We will feature experiences from countries which have made recent progress towards prohibiting child marriage under the laws as well as analyze contexts where countries are lagging behind or are debating proposals to erode women’s and girl’s rights.
No Child Left a Bride:
Successes & Setbacks in the Global Effort to End Child Marriage
A Hybrid Side Event
69th Session of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women
19 March 2025
10:00-11:15 am ET | 7:00-8:15 am PT | 2:00-3:15 pm GMT
Featuring:
Sponsored by:
IN PERSON:
United Nations Conference Building, Economic and Social Council Chamber
405 E 45th St, New York, NY 10017
VIRTUALLY:
Via UN WebTV
About Commission on the Status of Women
Each year the U.N. hosts CSW, the U.N.’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment, in New York City. Representatives of member states, U.N. entities and approved non-governmental organizations from around the world are invited to attend. The 69th session of CSW will take place 10 to 21 March 2025, on a hybrid basis, with a main focus on the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly.
It’s a huge victory for the 65,000 girls who live in D.C.: Mayor Muriel Bowser has signed the bill championed by Councilmember Brooke Pinto to end child marriage!
We are not putting on the party hats yet. Congress still has 30 days to veto the bill.
If Congress does not announce a war on girls in the next month (fingers crossed), the District of Columbia will then join the 13 U.S. states and two U.S. territories where we have helped to eliminate a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives. We will keep you updated.
We set out in November to see how much we could raise in the last 50 days of 2024 to help end child marriage in all 50 U.S. states.
Thanks to your generosity, and a dollar-for-dollar match on the first $75,000, together we raised $209,399. Clearly you are as determined as we are to eliminate this human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives.
We promise to continue advocating relentlessly for an “18 no exceptions” marriage age in every state, if you promise to continue partnering with us.
It’s a big moment for us: We are looking to hire our first-ever staff attorney to represent our clients as they escape forced marriage. !!
And it’s a big moment for you: If you have at least eight years of family law experience, are admitted to the New Jersey State Bar and want a deeply meaningful, exciting job, apply now before someone else does. !!
Your dream job just became available.
We are looking to hire an Operations Manager who will keep our programs running smoothly, as we push relentlessly to end forced and child marriage in the United States through direct services and systems change.
What are you waiting for? Apply now.
