To the Editor,
Between 2000 and 2010, nearly a quarter of a million children were married in the U.S, over 85 percent of which were girls. While Minnesota is one of 13 states that does not keep data on child marriages, we know that it’s happening here, too.
Nearly a month ago, the Minnesota House of Representatives voted unanimously on my bill to end child marriages in Minnesota. Today, the bill has yet to see a hearing in the Minnesota Senate.
This isn’t just an international issue. It happens in the United States, in new immigrant communities as well as communities that have lived in this country for many generations. And it has the nearly universal effect of stunting childhoods and exposing minors to abuse, poverty, and life-long physical and mental health challenges.
Children who get married are significantly more likely to experience abuse, poverty, adverse physical and mental health outcomes, underage pregnancy, death resulting from childbirth, and to drop out of school.
Why would something so clearly harmful, so clearly supported by our lawmakers, not be taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate? I may not have been a lawmaker for very long, but I know that’s simply not right.
Ninety percent of child marriages occur between individuals with a significant enough age gap that, if not for the marriage, a sexual relationship would constitute statutory rape. This was a vote to end the exploitation of the most vulnerable Minnesotans, and I urge our Senate counterparts to make that same commitment.