Virginia turned the twelfth U.S. state and first within the South to finish little one marriage final week, after Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed HB 994 into regulation. The regulation utterly ends little one marriage within the state by establishing a minimal marriage age of 18 with out exceptions and removes a authorized loophole that beforehand allowed emancipated minors to marry in Virginia. The regulation will go into impact on July 1, 2024.
The invoice was carried by state Delegate Karen Keys-Gamarra (D) after an preliminary request from myself—each of us girls from Fairfax County. This regulation will shield kids from the abuse and exploitation that may happen underneath the guise of marriage and the lifelong hurt that always outcomes from marrying underage, irrespective of the circumstances. We hope to see the remaining 38 states comply with go well with.
Virginia led the trouble to finish little one marriage in 2016 when then-Delegate, now-U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan and state Sen. Jill Vogel carried HB 703/SB 415. The invoice tried to finish marriage earlier than 18, nevertheless it allowed a minor to be entered into marriage at age 16 if a decide authorised and emancipated the minor as a part of the method (or they had been already emancipated), which didn’t shield 16- and 17-year-olds.
Some 7,876 minors as younger as 12 had been entered into marriage in Virginia between 2000 and 2021, in line with analysis from the group Unchained at Final. A minimum of 65 of these minors had been married because the present regulation went into impact in 2016, and greater than 80 % had been married to grownup males. Virtually the entire marriages since 2000 concerned a minor who was not sufficiently old to consent to intercourse with their partner, in any other case making this statutory rape.
Youngster marriage has been proven to lead to elevated danger of future poverty, significantly for teen mothers, in addition to better vulnerability to sexual and home violence, human trafficking, coercive management, monetary abuse, homelessness and psychological sickness. Youngster marriage victims expertise elevated highschool dropout charges and divorce charges are upwards of 80 %.
By constructing a coalition and dealing with girls’s and human rights teams, we made our case that this human rights abuse trapping weak younger ladies and impacting their entry to training and social companies should finish. We couldn’t have achieved this success with out sisterhood and assist from Zonta USA, Unchained At Final, Tahirih Justice Middle, Equality Now, UltraViolet, the AHA Basis, Virginia Nationwide Group for Ladies members and little one marriage survivors who all helped make this victory doable by testifying, contacting lawmakers, sharing posts on social media and informing others concerning the dangerous results of kid marriage. We’re grateful to the bipartisan group of legislators who ensured its passage in each chambers.
Virginia can also be the fifth state to finish little one marriage in simply the final two years and joins Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Michigan and Washington—reflecting rising momentum throughout the nation.
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