Bills on child marriage introduced in 8 states

HARTFORD, Conn. — Several states are considering legislation this year to end or curb child marriages, including in Connecticut, where a proposed bill would prohibit marriage licenses for anyone under 18.

That bill is awaiting committee action. Legislation also has been proposed in New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, Missouri, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

While the legal age to marry in Connecticut is already 18, state law also allows 16- and 17-year-olds to marry as long as they have parental consent. Children age 15 or younger can marry if they obtain approval from a parent and a probate court judge.

Human-rights activists say such exceptions have led to forced and arranged child marriages.

“We know that girls that are married as children are more likely to experience domestic violence,” said Fraidy Reiss, the founder and executive director of the New Jersey-based nonprofit Unchained At Last, which works to help women and girls escape arranged and forced marriages.

Reiss is pushing to pass legislation in several states this year. She said Connecticut’s law doesn’t provide a process to ensure that parental consent is not coerced and sets no minimum age for marriage that probate judges must follow.

According to the most recently available statistics, the Connecticut Department of Public Health says 159 girls and 28 boys under age 18 were married in Connecticut between 2011 and 2015, out of a total of 96,452 marriages.

Reiss said the department data she reviewed show about 1,140 children as young as 14 were married in Connecticut between 2000 and 2014, with more than 88 percent of the girls wed to older men.

Some bills include exceptions, such as the New York proposal, which would still allow 17-year-olds to marry with a judge’s consent. Virginia last year passed legislation that prohibits marriage licenses for people under 18 except for emancipated minors, Reiss said.