D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has officially signed the Child Marriage Prohibition Amendment Act, marking a significant step in protecting minors from early marriages. Initially proposed in October 2024, the legislation will now undergo a 30-day congressional review before it can take effect.
If approved, the District of Columbia would join 13 states and two U.S. territories in banning child marriage, aligning with similar laws already passed in Maryland and Virginia.
A key motivation behind the bill is concern that individuals from states where child marriage is illegal may seek to exploit D.C.’s laws for underage weddings.
Sally Greenberg, CEO of the National Consumers League and Chair of its Child Labor Coalition, highlighted the dangers of child marriage in an interview with WTOP. According to the nonprofit Unchained At Last, child marriage remains legal in 37 U.S. states, underscoring the ongoing fight to end the practice nationwide.
“Forced marriage, by definition, means that one of the parties has not consented to it. And they often have no choice,” said Greenberg. “Oftentimes, it is parents who force their children into marriage, and a vast majority are girls.”
The law will ban marriages before the age of 18, with no exemptions.
“The reason you need age 18 is because it’s the age of majority. It means that you have a right to divorce. You have a right to get a lawyer if you need one. You have a right to seek domestic violence counseling, none of which is available if you are underage,” Greenberg said. “If you have two teenagers who’ve fallen in love, let them wait until 18 to see if the relationship stands the test of time.”
According to Unchained At Last, about 300,000 minors were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018.
“There’s a perception that child marriage doesn’t occur in the United States,” Greenberg said. “It is not a rare occurrence, and in fact, it’s much more frequent than we like to admit. It’s not a political issue. It is a human rights issue and protecting against something I think both parties want to fight, and that’s human trafficking.”
“Some girls [who are] born here are sent overseas by their families and sent back to the United States, and they may be U.S. citizens. So they can be used as pawns to get citizenship for a man coming from overseas.”
