By Chitara Ellis, Contributing Writer/Editor

Every little girl has dreamed of being someone’s bride. In every dream, there is the beautiful, flowing white gown. Perfect hair crowned with a bridal veil. Parents and friends are gathered with tears in their eyes, gazing at the bride as she gracefully walks down the aisle. The organ plays “Here Comes the Bride.” In dreams like these, the bride is a consenting adult. 

In a nightmare, she is a child forced to marry an older man by her parents or community. Thousands of children have lived this nightmare right here in the U.S.—legally.

Individuals under the age of 18 can legally wed with a parent or guardian’s permission. Unchained at Last says that out of 38 states, over 150,000 legal child marriages occurred between 2000 and 2010. Most child marriages are between young girls and older men, with the state of Idaho having the highest percentage of these ungodly unions. Fortunately, the rate of child marriages decreased each year from 2000 to 2010, but without an outright ban, child marriages can legally continue in the U.S.

Child marriages fall under the category of slavery because children are not capable of consent, are abused and exploited during the union, and usually cannot support themselves if they escape, according to Anti-Slavery International. As Human Trafficking Search explains, married children are disenfranchised: Children who can legally marry cannot legally receive counsel for divorce proceedings, work a full-time job, sign for an apartment lease or obtain a driver’s license because they are too young. Even homeless shelters are required by law to report children who come to them because they are minors. Like a slave, a child bride is forced to stay with her “master.”

Little has been done at the federal level to prevent child marriages in the U.S. Girls Not Brides states that the U.S. signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995 in partnership with the United Nations but has yet to ratify it. The convention would set the minimum marriage age limit to 18. From 2013 to 2015, the U.S. cosponsored the U.N.’s resolutions for child marriages, and the United States Agency for International Development has proposed guidelines and vision plans for stopping child and forced marriages globally. Still, no federal laws have passed to wipe out the practice across the country. New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania passed laws in 2018 that ban child marriages in their states, making them the only 3 states that protect minors from marriage. 

As a component of child sex slavery, child marriage is another method abusers and traffickers use to harm children. You can play a crucial part in the rehabilitation of child sex trafficking victims by supporting One Bread Foundation. Use our affiliate links to do your upcoming holiday shopping and donate to One Bread Foundation at no cost to yourself. Learn more at one-bread.org/shop-now.