Rep. Van Taylor Introduces Legislation to Help End Forced Child Marriage

Press Release

Today, U.S. Congressman Van Taylor (R-TX-03) introduced legislation to help end the practice of forced child marriage in the United States by closing the information gap on this dark practice.

Joined by Representatives Joe Morelle (D-NY-25) and Gwen Moore (D-WI-04), Congressman Van Taylor (R-TX-03) introduced H.R. 1606, the End Forced Child Marriages Act to gather additional data and information pertaining to the age of consent to be utilized in crafting a long-term legislative solution to prevent the act of forced child marriages.
Congressman Taylor said, "Hearing stories from victims forced to marry as children will forever haunt my memory. The law did not protect these children. We must do better as a nation to protect victims and I am hopeful this legislation is an important step to bring about much needed change across the country."

"Forced child marriage is an unconscionable practice that can have extremely dangerous consequences for many young Americans," said Congressman Joe Morelle (D-NY-25). "During my time as Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly, we took action to address this by passing a child marriage law to raise the age of consent and ban marriage under the age of 17. Now we must enact these standards nationally, and which is why I'm proud to co-sponsor this legislation and work alongside Rep. Taylor to end forced child marriage once and for all."

"In too many instances, forced child marriages are part of violent offenses committed against our most vulnerable," said Representative Gwen Moore (WI-04). "I join Rep. Van Taylor and Rep. Joseph Morelle in seeking comprehensive data on this issue to better inform policies with the aims of ending the practice of forced child marriages."

For most states, eighteen is the minimum legal age in which parties can marry. However, many states have statutory exceptions, such as parental consent, pregnancy, or judicial consent, which in effect, substantially lower the allowable age for marriage, leaving many minors unprotected. According to the Tahirih Justice Center, more than 207,000 children were married across the United States between 2000 and 2015.

H.R. 1606 amends the Child Abuse and Prevention Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study and report on the martial age of consent with respect to each state. Specifically, the report should include the state law regarding the minimum marriage age, the prevalence of marriage involving a child who is under the age of such minimum age, the extent to which any statutory exceptions to the minimum marriage age contributes to the prevalence of this happening, whether these exceptions allow children to be married without consent, and the impact of exceptions on the safety of children.

The complete text of H.R. 1606 can be found here.

Background
In the Texas Legislature, Rep. Taylor introduced Senate Bill 1705, which went into effect on September 1, 2017 and banned anyone under 16 from marrying and required a judge's consent before allowing marriage for anyone under the age of 18.

In the 116th Congress, Representatives Taylor and Joe Morelle passed child marriage provisions as an amendment to H.R. 2480, the Stronger Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.

Rep. Taylor also joined Rep. Gwen Moore in introducing H.R. 8638, the Status of Child Marriages in the United States Act.

Source