WE DID IT! Our six years of relentless advocacy just led Massachusetts to end child marriage, making it the seventh U.S. state to ban this human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives.
Gov. Charlie Baker just approved language the legislature sent him last week in the state budget to eliminate all marriage before 18, without exceptions (which goes into effect immediately!).
Since 2016 we and our allies in the Massachusetts Coalition to End Child Marriage have worked closely with Rep. Kay Khan, Sen. Harriette Chandler and bipartisan legislative champions to achieve this legislative victory.
We compiled in-depth legal research conducted on a pro bono basis by the law firms White & Case and DLA Piper. We met with (or called) every state legislator multiple times. We testified at legislative hearings and submitted memos of support, and we recruited our allies to do the same. We wrote op-ed articles and appeared on television, radio and even in films to raise awareness. We launched email campaigns to target various legislators and the governor. We Chained-In three times in Boston, wearing bridal gowns and chains, to protest child marriage (including one Chain-In that was filmed for an upcoming docuseries on a major streaming platform).
And it worked! Finally!
Lush, the cosmetics company that uses only ethically sourced ingredients, made our work possible with its generosity. And you made this victory possible, if you emailed Massachusetts legislators to urge them to take action, shared our posts on social media or supported us financially.
Previously, parents could enter a child of any age into marriage in Massachusetts, without any input from the child, even if the child was too young to consent to sex. And marriage before age 18 creates a hellish legal trap: Even the most mature 17-year-old is not allowed to enter a domestic violence shelter or even file independently for divorce.
The previous law also contradicted statutory rape laws. Sex with a child under age 16 is a crime in Massachusetts, but marriage to a child under age 16 was perfectly legal. Every time the commonwealth issued a marriage license to a child under age 16, it basically sent a child home to be raped.
Further, marriage before 18 produces such devastating, lifelong repercussions for girls 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 1,246 minors, some as young as 13, were entered into marriage in Massachusetts between 2000 and 2018. At least 83 percent were girls wed to adult men an average of 5.15 years older. And 59 were under age 16, too young to consent to sex.
Massachusetts has now joined Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island and New York and embraced the simple, commonsense solution we are pushing in all 50 U.S. states: Set the marriage age at 18, without exceptions. Legislation to that effect harms no one, costs nothing and ends a human rights abuse.
Now we have “only” 43 states to go to end child marriage in the U.S. Your support makes that possible! Please donate now.
The Massachusetts Coalition to End Child Marriage includes: AHA Foundation, American Atheists, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, CAIR Massachusetts, Cape Cod Access, Cape Cod Women for Change, Child USA, Child USAdvocacy, Children’s League of Massachusetts, Children’s Trust MA, Equality Now, Girl Scouts of Central and Western MA, Girl Scouts of Eastern MA, Girl Up Needham, Girls Inc. – Holyoke, Girls Inc. of the Valley, Global Citizen, Group Peer Support, Greater Boston Legal Services, Human Rights Watch, J Strategies, Justice of the Peace Association, Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators, Massachusetts Citizens for Children (MassKids), Massachusetts Coalition to End Human Trafficking, Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, Massachusetts High School Democrats, Massachusetts Justice of the Peace Association, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC), Mass NOW, Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan, National Association of Social Workers — MA Chapter, Office of the Child Advocate, Pathways for Change, Portal to Hope, Probate and Family Court Department, RIA House, Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership Against Domestic Violence, Students Against Child Marriage, SWIFT: Supporting Women in Financial Transition, The Cape Cod & Island Commission on the Status of Women, Unchained At Last, UNICEF USA, Upper Cape Women’s Coalition, We Stand Together – Martha’s Vineyard, Alianza of Holyoke and Zonta Malden.
Individual members include: Alexis Brickner, Amber Hanson, Carolyn Schwartz, Christopher Viens, Deborah Benson, Diane Lopez, Dr. Shanta Pandy (Boston College School of Social Work), Jamie Sabino, Jana Harris, Jenn Bradbury (child marriage survivor), Julia Freedson (Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs), Kathleen Lenihan (Lexington School Committee), Prof. Margaret Drew (UMASS Dartmouth), Mya Tauber, Nesha Abiraj, Rabbi Claudia Kreiman, Sarah Hemingway, Sarah Pierson, Shagufa Habibi (child marriage survivor) and Simon Goodacre.
