May 17, 2018

State lawmakers across the country are moving to raise the minimum age to marry, out of growing concern that lax marriage laws may be contributing to sex trafficking and to children being forced to marry against their will.

Delaware became the first state to ban marriage for anyone under age 18 when the governor signed the measure last week. In the other 49 states, current law allows minors to marry, generally with parental consent or judicial approval. At least 20 states have no minimum age set by statute.

But over the past two years, seven states have raised their minimum marriage age to 16 or 17, and at least seven more are considering legislation to tighten their rules.

Lawmakers in Missouri, with a reputation as the easiest state in the nation for marrying a 15-year-old, moved ahead this week with a bill to ban the marriage of anyone under 16. A measure similar to Delaware’s has passed the State Senate in New Jersey, and this week a legislator in Utah, where children may marry at 15, suggested a ban on marriage before age 18, which advocates consider the gold standard.

“There is significant national momentum, and the pace of change is quickening,’’ said Jeanne Smoot, senior counsel for public policy and strategy at Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit advocacy group that favors tighter limits. “States are realizing that so long as laws remain on their books that may actually facilitate the forced marriage of a child, they need to consider themselves accountable.’’

Data that the group collected from public records in 41 states showed that between 2000 and 2015, more than 200,000 minors were married……

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