About Child Marriage

Unchained started and now leads the growing national movement to end child marriage in the U.S.

Child marriage, or marriage before 18, was legal in all 50 U.S. states. Thanks to Unchained’s relentless advocacy, that is changing. Delaware and New Jersey in 2018 became the first two states to end this human-rights abuse, followed by American Samoa in 2018 and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Pennsylvania and Minnesota in 2020.

However, child marriage remains legal in 46 states and is happening in the U.S. at an alarming rate: Unchained’s groundbreaking research revealed that nearly a quarter-million children as young as 12 were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010 – mostly girls wed to adult men.

Are you part of the movement to end child marriage in the U.S.? Take action.