Based on state marriage license data and other sources, advocacy groups and experts estimate that between 2000 and 2015 alone, well over 200,000 American children — nearly all of them girls — were married. In nearly all cases the husband was an adult.

The  Tahirih Justice Center, which  that works to end violence against women and girls, has produced an analysis of the myriad statutes governing marriage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Among their findings:

Twenty-five states do not set a minimum age at which a person can get married, and eight more set it at an age lower than 16. Alaska and North Carolina, for example, set the age at 14. In New Hampshire it’s 13 for girls, 14 for boys

In all of these states, minors who are below a certain age – it varies from state to state — must still get a judge’s approval to marry.  But most states do not specify that the ruling judge has to have expertise in  family, juvenile or domestic relations.  Very few states require that the child be appointed his or her own counsel, and only two states have  laws specifying that a judge cannot approve a marriage solely because the child’s parents have consented. Nine states expressly permit pregnancy as a reason to lower the minimum marriage age.

All of this makes it hard to ensure that a girl isn’t being pressured into marriage by her own family or an adult partner who, but for the marriage, would be subject to prosecution for statutory rape. What’s more, even in states that do officially set the age of marriage at 16 or higher, judges are generally allowed to overrule the limit and let a child marriage go forward.

The Tahirih Justice Center hopes that the report will spur lawmakers to correct the loopholes that they’ve identified in each state’s statues. So far progress has been slower than advocates would like. But interest in the issue is growing and over the last two years Virginia, Texas, and New York have all passed legislation that put in place “meaningful safeguards.” Before in New York, marriage was formally allowed for children as young as 14, with a judge’s permission. Now, the “age floor” is set at 17, and even then, approval is required by a judge who must determine that the minor is not being coerced, among other criteria. And the minor is appointed an attorney with training on domestic violence and forced marriage.   (a lightly edited version of a report by NPR, August 2017)

So in New Hampshire, for instance, a girl can get married almost before she gets a Facebook page and her first tattoo? Are they really serious?  Girls mature more quickly than boys, and there is a (tongue-in-cheek) case for the proposition that a good many men at far too young at 30 to get married, but girls married at 13?  I would call this a Predator’s Charter, which would never have been allowed had more women stood for election, and had “good ‘ole boys” at the golf club not  had the lower age limit written into law, or left vague,  years ago. And what are the parents of these children thinking?  Get all this cleaned up!  To say the least it is immoderate.