About 300,000 children and teens were legally married in the United States between 2000 and 2018, according to data from Unchained at Last, a nonprofit that works to help women and girls in forced marriages.
Laws prohibiting minors to marry have struggled to pass. Only 10 states have a law prohibiting people under 18 from marrying.
Pushback to setting 18 as a minimum age for marriage comes from both conservative and progressive groups.
It’s a “you broke it you bought it” law from the days when children were property (apparently including today)