The Child Marriage Prevention Act is groundbreaking federal legislation and represents the first concerted effort by the U.S. Congress to condemn and prevent child marriage domestically. During the webinar, Tahirih’s Director of Public Policy was joined by survivor advocates and staff from the offices of Senator Durbin and Representative Gwen Moore.

From Jeffrey Epstein to the recent and horrifying case of intergenerational child marriage and child abuse in Ohio, forced and child marriage is having insidious impacts across this country every day. Speakers provided an overview of the scope and devastating impact of child marriage in the United States today, how the Child Marriage Prevention Act would address these harms, and how you can get involved in the campaign to pass this bill into law. The Child Marriage Prevention Act was introduced on July 17th by Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI), Senator Dick Durbin (IL) and U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (HI) and Kirsten Gillibrand (NY).

In this webinar, our Director of Public Policy Casey Carter Swegman and Public Policy Manager Alex Goyette discussed the progress made in 2025, ways that states and the federal government can continue to prioritize prevention to protect children from the harms of child marriage, and how supporters can get involved with advocacy efforts.

View our updated reports online at tahirih.org/childmarriage.

Michigan recently became the 10th state to ban child marriage, a milestone victory! In this webinar, Casey Swegman, Director of Public Policy, and Alex Goyette, Public Policy Manager, discuss this significant milestone and Tahirih’s vision for ending child marriage in the next 40 states.

Author: Human Rights Watch

Published: September 2022

A new interactive scorecard from Human Rights Watch assessed state laws across the country to see how well each state has done in implementing the standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The laws address four issues impacting children: child marriage, corporal punishment, child labor, and juvenile justice. No state received better than a “C” grade, and the United States remains the only country in the world that has not ratified the Convention. Read more.

Author: Rachel L. Schuman

Publication: May 31, 2019

Laws allowing for child marriage have a long history in U.S. and common law, but are currently receiving increased scrutiny from advocates seeking to prevent the documented harms of early marriage. This article examines whether Congress could legally promote the implementation of a uniform marriage age across states using precedent set in South Dakota v. Dole. Read more.