Pennsylvania is poised to become the third state, after New Jersey and Delaware, to ban child marriage — with no exceptions.
A majority of states have minimum marriage ages at 16 or 17. Prior to 2016 — when Virginia became the first state to put its marriage age into law — more than half of the states had no minimum marriage age fixed by statute.
Donna Greco, the policy director for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, said that in conversations with state lawmakers, her group and a coalition of other advocates had to educate elected officials about the links between child marriage and abuse. "I think some of the states that have enacted legislation in this interim have put in place really thoughtful measures that have tried to imagine all the ways in which a girl who's being threatened, and intimidated, and coerced, and coached, and doesn't truly want to get married," Smoot said.
Khan, who chairs the Committee on Children, Families and Persons With Disabilities, credits advocates and survivors who have come forward with helping change opinion in the state about the issue.
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