U.S.

Delaware Becomes The First US State To Outlaw Child Marriage

Delaware's governor signed a bill Wednesday making it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to get married in the state.

Delaware Becomes The First US State To Outlaw Child Marriage
Adavyd / CC BY SA 3.0
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Delaware has become the first state in the U.S. to completely outlaw child marriage

The state's governor signed a bill Wednesday making it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to get married there. Under the state's previous law, minors could get married at any age as long as a judge approved the marriage.

According to a Frontline investigation, between 2000 and 2015, over 200,000 minors were married in America. Nearly 90 percent of the minors in those underage marriages were girls. 

The U.S. is one of a number of countries in which the United Nations wants to see the end of child marriage by 2030.