The Child Bride - Predators Always Find a Way - We Must Protect Our Children
Understanding the devastating reality of child marriage and the urgent need for protective legislation across America.
The Child Bride - Child Abuse and Manipulation - Predators Always Find a Way
The thought of a child being married off is just mind-blowing! The reality is that all over the world, this is happening with children as young as 6 years old (in some cultures), and right here in the United States.
It does not seem possible, but in most states, children as young as 12 years old can marry with parental consent, even if the legal age is 18.
This is something that is not talked about enough, and it is directly related to child abuse and child sexual abuse. NO CHILD should be married at such a young age. Most of the children married at a young age are girls, but it does happen to some boys, although not very often.
There are some states that have the legal age to marry as young as 15 and 16. Again, way too young for anyone to be married. This is considered rape of a minor, and these laws need to change. The emotional damage that is caused can be irreversible. The lifelong trauma and abuse can be debilitating.
Think about this scenario. A 50-year-old man marries a 12-year-old girl-is this person a pedophile? The answer is YES, 100 percent. Why would a grown man or woman want to marry a child? Predators are out there lurking in the shadows, waiting to claim their next victim. They are sly, conniving, and manipulative. With the right circumstances, they make it sound like a "grand" idea, and people fall into it without even realizing the depths of the damage that will be caused when a child is wed and raped repeatedly.
This is the reality of "Child Marriage," and it needs to stop. We, as a nation, need to continue to fight for stronger laws to protect our children. They are not pawns in someone's twisted game. They are children, and they should be safe, nurtured, and loved. NOT forced into a situation that should never be.
Children need to be valued and loved. They are not objects.
Recently, with the case of 16 children found to be living in one room in Ohio, this connects to this very subject. A CHILD BRIDE-
The children's mother, Elizabeth Siders, married Gary Siders Jr. in 2008 when she was 15 and pregnant, while he was 18 NewsNation+1. Elizabeth reportedly gave birth to all 16 children over 18 years, with two sets of twins dying shortly after birth in 2022 due to natural causes. They brought this woman across state lines so that they could be married. She spent the next 18 years continually pregnant. She was brainwashed and came from an abusive past. The damage was irreversible, and the cycle continued until the children were saved from this brutal environment. This is a very sad and disturbing story, but it speaks to the reality of a child bride situation.
WE NEED TO FIGHT FOR LAWS TO BE CHANGED:
Until the last decade, marriage under age 18 was legal in all 50 states. In 2018, Delaware and New Jersey became the first states to outright ban it. More states followed: Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Michigan, Washington, Virginia, New Hampshire, Washington, D.C., Maine, Oregon, Missouri, and, most recently, Oklahoma have banned it since 2020. In May, Oklahoma passed a Republican-sponsored bill that removed all exceptions for a person under 18 to marry.
Child marriage is defined as any marriage or similar union, formal or informal, where one or both of the parties are under 18 years old. While the child in the marriage can be a girl or boy, a majority of child marriages are between a minor girl and a man. Around the world, 12 million girls are married before the age of 18 every year.
Child marriage, usually forced, happens in all different countries, cultures, and religions. It is increasingly being viewed as a form of child sexual abuse, and some international organizations have declared it a human rights violation. Child marriage is fueled by gender inequality, poverty, traditions, and insecurity. Studies done in Africa and South Asia showed that the root causes and exacerbating factors that contribute to child marriage are traditions and gender-discriminatory norms rooted in patriarchal views and ideologies.
Minimum Marriage Age in the United States
In the United States, the marriage age is set by each state and territory, either by common law or by individual statutes. An individual in the United States can marry without parental consent at the age of 18 in all states. This is except for Nebraska, where the age is 19, and Mississippi and Puerto Rico, where the age is 21. In most U.S. states, the minimum marriage age for minors who have parental consent ranges from 12 to 17 years old. California and Mississippi do not have set minimum ages for minors to marry with parental consent. Some states have separate minimum ages for males and females, with or without parental consent. Massachusetts has the lowest minimum marriage ages with parental consent, at 12 for girls and 14 for boys.
More states ban child marriage, though it's still legal in most of the US • Stateline
California bans child marriage, a practice still legal in 32 US states
U.S. Child Marriage Facts
In the U.S., about 200,000 minors have married between 2000 and 2015. Of the 200,000 child marriages: 67% of the children were 17, 29% of the children were 16, 4% of the children were 15, less than 1% of children were 14 or under, and there were 51 cases of 13-year-olds getting married and 6 cases of 12-year-olds. According to the Pew Research Center, child marriage is more common in the southern United States, including the states of West Virginia, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, and North Carolina. California and Nevada have high incidences of child marriage as well.
Some extreme cases of child marriage in the U.S. are:
- In 2010 in Idaho, a 65-year-old man married a 17-year-old girl.
- In Alabama, a 74-year-old man married a 14-year-old girl.
- In Tennessee, three 10-year-old girls married men ages 24, 25, and 31, respectively.
- The youngest boy to marry was an 11-year-old who married a 27-year-old woman in Tennessee in 2006.
We need to change this narrative.
Lisa Zarcone
CASA ADVOCATE
Please visit my website and connect: www.lisazarcone.net
