About 300,000 children and teens were legally married in the United States between 2000 and 2018, according to data from Unchained at Last, a nonprofit that works to help women and girls in forced marriages.
Laws prohibiting minors to marry have struggled to pass. Only 10 states have a law prohibiting people under 18 from marrying.
Pushback to setting 18 as a minimum age for marriage comes from both conservative and progressive groups.
And that’s very noble of you, but in general, these children are girls being married to much older men, sanctified by their church. And that’s what Republicans want to preserve as part of their Handmaid’s Tale worldview.