Some rare good news for girls in this country: Vermont just became the eighth U.S. state where our relentless advocacy has helped to end child marriage!
Gov. Phil Scott just signed legislation championed by Rep. Carol Ode to make the marriage age in Vermont 18, no exceptions.
Twice before, in 2018 and 2022, the same legislation in Vermont — also sponsored by Rep. Ode — died because the legislature failed to act on it.
We refused to give up. We formed the Vermont Coalition to End Child Marriage with allies across Vermont and beyond who were determined to see Rep. Ode’s legislation pass. We compiled in-depth legal research conducted on a pro bono basis by the law firms White & Case and DLA Piper. We met one-on-one with legislators. We spoke at public events and forums. We testified at legislative hearings and submitted memos of support, and we recruited our allies to do the same. We launched email campaigns to target state legislators.
And it worked!
Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago and Elluminate made our work possible with their generosity. And you made this victory possible, if you took action on our email campaigns, shared our posts on social media or supported us financially.
Previously, parents could enter 16- and 17-year-olds into marriage in Vermont without any input from the teen and without any legal recourse for a teen who did not want to marry.
Marriage before age 18 creates a hellish legal trap: Even the most mature 17-year-old cannot easily leave home to escape an unwanted wedding, enter a domestic violence shelter to seek safety, nor retain an attorney to help them.
Further, marriage before 18 produces such devastating, lifelong repercussions for girls, in almost every aspect of their lives, that the U.S. State Department has called it a human rights abuse.
This human rights abuse happened with alarming frequency. Our study found that some 298 minors were entered into marriage in Vermont between 2000 and 2022. About 80 percent were girls wed to adult men an average of 4.2 years older.
Vermont has now joined Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts in embracing the simple, commonsense legislative solution we are pushing in all 50 U.S. states: Set the marriage age at 18, without exceptions. Such legislation harms no one, costs nothing and ends a human rights abuse.
Only 42 states to go to eliminate a human rights abuse and nightmarish legal trap that destroys nearly every aspect of American girls’ lives. We promise to keep pushing to make sure the U.S. keeps its promise under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to end forced and child marriage by year 2030.
Your support makes that possible! Please donate now.
The Vermont Coalition to End Child Marriage includes:
