Thousands of children, as young as age 12, have been legally married in the U.S. in recent years. Please sign this petition to end child marriage in the U.S.

MINIMUM MARRIAGE AGE -- WITH EXCEPTIONS

The minimum marriage age in in most US states is 18. However, every US state allows exceptions under which children – defined by United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as anyone under age 18 – can wed.

- Common exception #1: “Parental consent.” In most states, children age 16 or 17 can marry if their parents sign the marriage license application. Obviously, “parental consent” can actually be “parental coercion,” but state laws do not call for anyone to ask the children whether they are being pressured into marriage. Even when a girl sobs openly while her parents sign the application and force her into marriage, the clerk has no authority to intervene.

- Common exception #2: Judicial approval. In most states, judicial approval lowers the marriage age below 16, and many states do not specify a minimum age below which a judge may not approve a child marriage.

THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN MARRIED

Unchained At Last, a nonprofit that helps women escape arranged/forced marriages, retrieved state data on the ages of people married in New Jersey between 1995 and 2012. The data showed nearly 3,500 children were married in New Jersey during that time.

While most of those children were ages 16 or 17, which means they married with “parental consent,” more than 160 were between ages 13 and 15. Each one of those children required a judge's approval for her or his marriage.

Even more shockingly, 85 percent of the children were minor girls married to adult men, some with age differences that would be considered statutory rape. Across the world, child marriage and forced marriage disproportionately affect girls and women.

Unchained also retrieved marriage-age data in New York, where 16- and 17-year-olds can wed with “parental consent,” and 14- and 15-year-olds can with judicial approval. The data show 3,853 children were married in New York between 2000 and 2010.

Like in New Jersey, the age differences between children and their spouses were unconscionable. In 2011, a 14-year-old married a 26-year-old in New York, and a 15-year-old married someone age “35 to 39.” A 15-year-old was wed to a 28-year-old. Another 15-year-old was wed to a 25-year-old.

The Tahirih Justice Center retrieved marriage-age data in Virginia and learned nearly 4,500 children as young as 13 were married there between 2004 and 2013. Eighty-seven percent of them were girls.

DANGERS OF CHILD MARRIAGE

Marriage is a legal contract that, like other contracts, should be reserved for adults. The dangers of child marriage are clear: A 2015 study showed child marriage “undermines girls’ health, education and economic opportunities, and increases their risk of experiencing violence.”

A GLOBAL PROBLEM

Globally, 88 percent of countries set 18 as the minimum marriage age, but 52 percent of countries allow minor girls to marry with “parental consent,” according to the World Policy Center.

As a result, more than 700 million women alive today around the world were married as children, including some 250 million who wed before 15, according to United Nations Children’s Fund. Most live in South Asia or sub-Saharan Africa.

But too many live right here in the U.S.

END CHILD MARRIAGE IN THE U.S.

Take action. Sign this petition to demand that the every state legislature eliminate the exceptions that allow children to marry.

NEW YORK TIMES COVERAGE

Unchained wrote an op-ed about this urgent matter, that the New York Times published in October 2015. Click here to read the op-ed.