The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is asking our supporters in Missouri: Please urge your members of the state legislature to pass SB 767, a ban on child marriage.
SB 767 would ban child marriage in Missouri by prohibiting the issuing of marriage licenses for anyone under the age of eighteen. Current state law allows anyone sixteen years old or over to get married with parental consent.
As CFI has long argued, the problem of child marriage is linked to the power of religious communities over the lives of children. In a typical scenario, a young girl is married to an older man who is a member of her family’s religious congregation or community. Nationally, approximately 86 percent of child marriages involve girls under the age of eighteen.
Child marriage has been shown to lead to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. It also leads to worse life outcomes such as isolation, loss of education, humiliation, and lack of economic opportunities.
In Missouri, approximately 230 minors were married between 2019 and 2021 alone, with roughly 75 percent of those marriages involving girls under the age of eighteen, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Between 2000 and 2018, a staggering 8,007 children were married in Missouri.
CFI’s Office of Public Policy has consistently lobbied in favor of child marriage bans over the years. If it were to enact SB 767, Missouri would become the thirteenth state to completely ban child marriage by raising the legal age of marriage to eighteen, with no exceptions. Missouri would also be the third such state this year, joining Washington and Virginia.
With the Missouri Senate having passed SB 767 on April 11, the bill is currently before the House of Representatives’ Government Efficiency and Downsizing Committee. SB 767 needs to be approved by the House of Representatives and then would go back to the Senate for final approval.
Missouri’s 2024 legislative session is scheduled to end on May 17, so please contact your state Senator and Representative today and ask them to vote for SB 767.
