New Hampshire could become the latest US state to ban child marriage after its House of Representatives passed a bill that would raise the minimum age for marriage to 18.
Until 2016 child marriage – defined as a union involving at least one person under 18 years of age – was legal in all 50 states, sometimes only under specific circumstances, such as pregnancy. But since the US signed up to a United Nations plan to end the practice by 2030, 12 states have passed laws banning it, beginning with Delaware in 2018.
The Senate Bill 359, which could make New Hampshire the 13th, now heads to Governor Chris Sununu's desk to either be signed into law or vetoed. Sununu previously raised the state's minimum age to 16, up from 13, which he had called "unconscionable" at the time, said Newsweek.
Child marriage is "surprisingly widespread throughout the US, cutting across different regions, religions and cultures", according to the recent Population Institute study "Behind Closed Doors". Between 2000 and 2018 an estimated 300,000 children under 18 were legally married in the US – some as young as 10.
The number of children married has decreased almost every year since 2000, according to 19th News. But even so "most Americans do not realise that these abuses are happening", said Fraidy Reiss, the founder of Unchained At Last, which helps women and girls trapped in forced marriages.
"They imagine this happening on the other side of the world", rather than in the US, largely because of "outdated, archaic and dangerous laws that need to be updated". | 
