While the US maligns other 3rd world countries regarding human rights abuses, we still have yet to fix our problems in our own backyard–and that is the serious problem with child brides.

If a girl is pregnant, with parental consent, a shocking 27 states have no law at which marriage is simply too young.

And a girl aged 17 or younger can be forced into a marriage she does not want, does not need and does not understand when she is young and has no real options to escape.

The US has to end child marriage NOW.  Girls can no longer be forced into marrying men, often those much older than themselves.  Many of these men will beat them, keep them at home without transportation, and the girl has no real escape options.  Children often grow up with a violent, distant father figure and are emotionally, if not physically scared for life.

Read the statistics on how these girls rarely graduate from college, bear children while being just a child themselves and incapable of properly raising children.

Girls who want to escape can’t because shelters won’t let children stay without parental consent–the same parents who provided the consent to marry a child off.  Juvenile records are often sealed to NGOs who would help them. Social services won’t intervene because the marriages are considered “lawful.” So a girl placed into an abusive marriage by abusive parents has no hope for escape, even if the man she is married off to is significantly older, does not support her and is emotionally and/or physically abusive toward her.

The state will turn its back on this girl.

Read more at

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/02/10/why-does-the-united-states-still-let-12-year-old-girls-get-married/?utm_term=.97abe7a606ff

and watch the video.

We must save these girls.

JoAnne