The Vermont Senate gave final approval on Wednesday to a bill that would raise the marriage age to 18, which supporters say would reduce domestic violence and unwanted pregnancies and improve the education and lives of teenagers.
Under existing law, Vermonters aged 16 and 17 can get married with the consent of one parent and the child doesn’t have to consent themselves, said Rep. Carole Ode, a Democrat, and lead sponsor of the legislation.
If Republican Gov. Phil Scott signs the Act to Ban Child Marriage into law, Vermont would join six other states in the Northeast and Minnesota that do not allow marriage before the age of 18, according to the nonprofit organization Unchained at Last.
The New Jersey-based group has been lobbying to end child marriage across the country, calling it a “human rights abuse.” It says between 2000 and 2018 nearly 300,000 children were married in the U.S., and most of the marriages were between girls and adult men. In Vermont, 289 children under the age of 18 were married between 2000 and 2021 and 80% of them were girls married to adult men, according to the organization.
Opponents say it’s unfair to teenagers who become pregnant to not allow them to marry.
