Authors: Cristine Belles-Obrero and Maria Lombardi

Publication: August 1, 2021

New research looks at the effect of minimum marriage age reforms in Mexico, and includes insights for advocates working to end child marriage in the United States. Among these is the fact that many Mexican states took an incremental approach to child marriage reform, first raising their minimum marriage age to 16 before eventually ending all marriage under 18, without exceptions – perhaps providing a useful blueprint for effective incremental reform in U.S. states that resist going to age 18 as a first step. The researchers also found that action by the federal government seems to have been critical in pushing states to pass “18, no exceptions” laws, again laying out a strategic model available for U.S. advocates who could push Congress to incentivize more U.S. states to take action.