Texas Finally Banned Child Marriage

Texas, when you read this word you may think about rodeo, country and cowboys but have you ever thought that Texas could go with child marriage?

Well, on Thursday, June 6th, 2017 Greg Abbott (Texas’ Governor) signed a law banning child marriages. Before this law, minors between 16 and 18 could marry with a parental consent and younger children could marry if a court believed that a marriage was in their best interest. At that time, the law did not require any other inquiries, investigations or special procedures which that it was somehow impossible to know whether the child was forced to marry or not. For example, a young boy or girl under the age of 18 is granted the permission to marry is still a minor; she/he is not emancipated until after the marriage. This mean that these young people will only gain the full legal rights they would need to prevent a marriage that is being forced on them, only after the marriage itself. With nearly 40,000 children under age 18 were married over 2000-2014 (the latest year for which data is available) and an average of about 2,000 child marriage a year, Texas has the second-highest rate of youth marriage in the US.

With the new law, Texas has become the second state in the country ― following Virginia last year ― to close any legal loopholes and limit marriage to legal adults, 18 and older, or court-emancipated minors 16 and over. But child marriage is still an issue in the US. According to the Miami Herlad laws in 27 states do not specify an age below which a child cannot marry and in 38 states many children, almost all of them girls, some as young as 12 years old were mostly married to men 18 or older all religions regardless of type. Which means that marrying under age 18 is legal in almost every US states even though it’s not very common.

Many of these marriages happen after a rape, girls are more likely to be married to their rapist if they get pregnant, and others may be forced to marry if their parents seek financial gain.

We’re undoubtedly used to blame Asian or African countries for marrying young children to adults, child weddings is an emerging question in developed countries like the US. According to the Girls Not Brides association, if there’s no reduction, the number of girls being married before their

will reach 1.2 billion by 2050. Indeed today, more than 700 million women, and over 150 million men, already suffer the consequences of child marriage all around the world, it is high time for all of us governments and individuals to take action. But, there are no reasons to not be optimistic since more than 10 states have recently considered or passed similar laws, and in the states of New York and Connecticut underage marriage bills are simply awaiting governors’ signatures.

What do you mean?

A loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in the law or a set of rules.