This Slate article highlights The Tahirih Justice Center’s role in drafting and propelling legislation banning child marriage in Texas. Once the bill goes into effect later this year, only those above 18, or minors who have been emancipated (given the full legal rights of an adult) can wed in the state.
“According to the Tahirih Justice Center, an anti–gender violence advocacy group that helped write the new Texas law, judges and law enforcement officials [previously] were not required to look into whether the minor being presented for marriage was a victim of abuse or coercion.”
“Between 2000 and 2014, almost 40,000 minors were married in Texas, Tahirih says, citing Texas Department of State Health Services statistics. Most of these minors were child and adolescent girls, some as young as 12 years old, marrying adult men.”
