A bill to ban child marriages in Texas has passed the House and is on its way to the Senate. The measure would also void any marriages for people currently under 18. As Houston Public Media reports, House Bill 168 would close a loophole that allows children as young as 16 to marry if they are legally emancipated.
State Representative Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston, the bill’s author, told The Texas House Subcommittee on Family and Fiduciary Relationships that practice has led to widespread abuses. “There are instances of severe age gaps of these emancipated minors, 10, 20, or even 30 years of age difference between them.”
Becca Powell of the nonprofit Unchained at Last, was more blunt. “Sex with a 16-year-old is a crime if the perpetrator falls out of line of the close-in-age exception unless the perpetrator first marries the minor. Therefore, a marriage license involving a 16-year-old and a spouse outside the close-in-age exception is a get-out-of-jail-free card for a would-be child rapist.” The bill passed the House by a vote of 87 to 48.
According to the nonprofit organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), as of March 2024, in four states there is no statutory minimum age. Those include California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
As of June 2024, The HRW reports that child marriage is legal in 36 states under certain conditions. Another 14 states have banned underage marriages, with no exception.
