Excuse us for victory dancing over here like no one is watching — because we just achieved another historic legislative victory. Washington is now the 11th U.S. state where our relentless advocacy has helped to end child marriage. !!!!!!
Gov. Jay Inslee just signed legislation championed by Rep. Monica Stonier and Sen. Derek Stanford — and by us and the Washington Coalition to End Child Marriage that we convene — to make the marriage age in Washington 18, no exceptions.
Today is a happy one for the 8.3 million girls who live in the 11 states where we have helped to end child marriage to date — and it leaves only 39 states to go.
And we have more good news out of one of those states: The New Hampshire senate today unanimously passed a bill to end all marriage before age 18, bringing the Granite State one step closer to ending child marriage.
RELENTLESS ADVOCACY
Bills to end child marriage died in the legislature twice before, but we refused to give up. Alongside our allies in the Washington Coalition to End Child Marriage that we convened, as well as legislative champions like Rep. Stonier, Sen. Stanford and Sen. Manka Dhingra, we Chained-In at the state capitol, in bridal gowns and chains, to urge legislators to finally take action and end child marriage in Washington — something we’ve been pushing them to do for six years. We met one-on-one with nearly every Washington state legislator. We — along with Washington forced and child marriage survivors — 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 state legislators.
And it worked!
Supporters like Roberts Family Foundation, Focus For Health and the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago 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.
DANGERS IN PREVIOUS LAW
The new legislation closes dangerous legal loopholes that allow parents to enter a child of ANY AGE into marriage 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 5,048 minors as young as 13 were entered into marriage in Washington between 2000 and 2021 — and more than 80% were girls wed to adult men. Between 38 and 51 were not even old enough to consent to sex with their spouse.
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.”
NATIONAL MOVEMENT
Washington has now joined Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and Michigan 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.
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 Washington Coalition to End Child Marriage includes:
- AHA Foundation
- Childhaven
- Children’s Advocacy Centers of Washington
- Children’s Alliance
- Children’s Campaign Fund
- Camp Fire Snohomish County
- Conversion Therapy Dropout Network
- Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County
- Indivisible Bellingham
- Indivisible Eastside
- King County Sexual Assault Resource Center
- Lutheran Community Services Northwest
- National Association of Social Workers -Washington
- National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington
- Northwest Progressive Institute
- Salish Sea Federation of Democratic Women
- Olympia Indivisible
- Unchained At Last
- Washington State Association for Justice
- Zonta Club of Everett
- Zonta Club of Olympia
- Zonta Club of South Puget Sound
- Zonta District 8
- Ali Canfield
- Elisabeth Heiner
- Katie Short
- Sarah Staley
- Shelbie Arteaga
- Stephanie Warren
- Toni Kolb