National Coalition to End Child Marriage
End Gender-Violence Zonta Says NO!
US Women at the UN
Washington Governor Jay Inslee signs into law bill HB1455 to End Child Marriage
We Ended Child Marriage in WA state:
Governor Inslee signed HB 1455 to End Child Marriage in Washington state. Zonta members Connie Campbell, Pamela Dittlof and Marianne Tompkins were able to to attend and represent Zonta, and stand beside our legislators and survivors. Thanks to all who helped keep the pressure on.
Almost 5000 Children were married in Washington State.
Some 4,831 minors, as young as 13, were married in Washington between 2000 and 2018.34
- Some 80% were girls wed to adult men an average of 4.03 years older.35
- Between 2000 and 2014, at least 35 and possibly as many as 48 marriages occurred with a spousal age difference that would have been considered a sex crime outside of marriage.36
Child marriage, or marriage before age 18, was legal in all 50 U.S. states as of 2017, based on archaic laws at the state level. Delaware and New Jersey in 2018 became the first two states to end this human rights abuse, followed by American Samoa in 2018, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Pennsylvania and Minnesota in 2020, Rhode Island and New York in 2021, Massachusetts in 2022 and Vermont and Connecticut in 2023. However, child marriage remains legal in 41 states and is happening in the U.S. at an alarming rate: Unchained’s groundbreaking research revealed that nearly 300,000 children as young as 10 were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018 – mostly girls wed to adult men.
Zontians in the photo include on the far left Marianne Tompkin (South Puget Sound) and Pam Dittloff (Olympia) and on the far right is Connie Campbell (South Puget Sound).
Photo by Washington State Legislative Support Services via the Northwest Progressive Institute
See more at King 5 News https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/state-politics/bill-to-end-child-marriage-washington-on-governors-desk/
CHILD MARRIAGE IS LEGAL IN MOST US STATES
It is past time to end this human rights abuse! Laws must be changed state by state. Join us, act now by messaging your legislators with UNICEFUSA, and then join in your state’s coalition to end child marriage. Act at: www.stopchildmarriages.org
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