If at least one of the spouses has not yet reached the general age of marriage, the marriage is considered a minor. Six states completely ban underage marriage: Delaware, New Jersey, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and New York. Other states may require the minor partner to obtain either parental consent, judicial authorization, or both, or to invoke “extraordinary circumstances.” The minimum age of marriage for minors, when all extenuating circumstances are taken into account, is generally between 15 and 17 years, but may be lower in California and Massachusetts. Nine states do not allow a person over the age of 21 to marry a minor. This is most common in West Virginia and Texas, where about seven in 15- to 17-year-olds were married in 2014, compared with five in 1,000 nationally. Several other southern and western states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Nevada and California, also have above-average rates of child marriage. This table refers to state marriage laws and attempts to summarize some of their key points. Those interested in the matrimonial law of a particular jurisdiction should examine its law directly, rather than relying on this summary, which may not be entirely accurate or complete. In the United States, the age of marriage is determined by each state and territory, either by common law or by individual laws. The minimum age of marriage is intended to prevent child marriage. A person in the United States can marry without parental consent at the age of 18 in all states except Nebraska, where the age is 19. The table below provides a brief overview of the age of consent to marriage in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, as well as links to relevant laws.
For more details on a state`s age of marriage laws, please read that state`s regulations. The organization Unchained At Last found that between 2000 and 2018, nearly 300,000 children under the age of 18 were legally married. What do you think? Should marriage be prohibited for persons under the age of 18, or should exceptions relating to parental consent, pregnancy or court authorization be maintained? Tasneem suffered domestic violence and gave birth to two children at the age of 19. It took her seven years to escape marriage and another three to complete the divorce, she said. After that, she spent a decade rebuilding her life and recovering from the emotional trauma. She now cares for other survivors of child marriage. Geneviève Meyer, 41, also spent years freeing herself at the age of 15 from a forced marriage to a man nearly three decades her senior. The man lived in the same trailer park as his family in Yucaipa, California, and “befriended,” though Meyer now believes he treated her for sex.
When her mother and stepfather found out about the relationship, they pushed her to get married. She left the man at the age of 19, but she faced emotional and legal consequences — including a custody battle for her daughter — for the next two decades, she said. Several states, such as California and Washington, have not set a legal age. In California, the applicable law is found in California Family Code Sections 302 and 304 (2019): “An unmarried person under the age of 18 may obtain a marriage certificate upon receipt of a court order authorizing the person or persons to marry in accordance with the requirements described in Section 304.” [11] Historically, Section 56 of the California Civil Code (1872) established 15 as the age at which a woman could marry without her parents` consent. In 1921, the age was raised to 18. [12] Although 18 is the minimum age of marriage in most states, there are exceptions in each state that allow children under 18 to marry, usually with parental consent or judicial approval. Nine states still allow pregnancy exceptions to the age of marriage. In fact, 27 states do not indicate an age below which a child cannot marry, including California! Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware are the only states where 18 years of marriage are married. “As much as we like to think that California is always leading and always ahead of the trendline, this is really an area where we`re not leading and we`re letting California girls down,” said Rep. Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Laguna Beach, author of a bill that stalled earlier this year that would have tightened the county`s requirements for reporting child marriage. In 2018, California Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) proposed a law, SB 273, that would have banned all marriages under the age of 18. The proposal met with unexpected opposition from several civil rights groups, including Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Children`s Law Center of California.
Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States and its inhabitants are U.S. citizens. In Puerto Rico, the general age of marriage is 21, as that is the age of majority. The general age of marriage in Puerto Rico is 21 or 18 with parental consent. [35] In Guam, the general age is 18, but 16-year-olds may marry with the consent of at least one parent or guardian. [36] In American Samoa, the age of marriage has been 18 for both sexes since September 2018. Previously, the age of marriage for women was 14. [37] American Samoa does not allow marriages with minors. In the District of Columbia, the general age is 18, but 16-year-olds may marry with exceptions. [35] In the United States.