Rep. Klarides-Ditria: End Practice of Child Marriage

State Representative Nicole Klarides-Ditria (R-105) today provided testimony to the Judiciary Committee in support of a bill to eliminate the practice of child marriage in Connecticut and firmly establish 18 years of age as the minimum to be wed under most circumstances.

Rep. Klarides-Ditria feels so strongly about ending this abhorrent practice that she cosponsored House Bill 6569: An Act Concerning the Minimum Age to be Eligible to Marry – which will set 18-years-old as the minimum age to marry without parental and court consent in Connecticut.

“Connecticut prides itself on being a progressive state, but we still maintain child marriage as one distinctive difference from our neighbors that keeps us in the dark ages of sexism and abuse, and which must be abolished,” Rep Klarides-Ditria said. “Several years ago, the legislature raised the legal age of marriage to 16-years-old and now is the time to do even more to protect children.”

In her written testimony, Rep. Klarides-Ditria noted that according to data from the Connecticut Department of Public Health, 1,246 minors, some as young as 14, were married in our state between 2000 and 2020, including 24 minors that were married between October 2017 and December 2020.  Stating that child marriage is a harmful practice, the United States took a vow, along with 193 other countries who are in agreeance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, to eliminate child marriage by 2030. New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are forward-thinking enough to know that child marriage has no place in our modern society.

“If we continue to keep our heads in the sand with this issue, we run the risk of being dubbed the ‘Child Marriage State’ and even worse, we run the risk of committing atrocious, irreversible damage that will impact every facet of these young people’s lives. Join me in doing what is right for the young women and men of this state and lead by example to accomplish the goals set out in the Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” Rep. Klarides-Ditria said.

The bill is currently before the Judiciary Committee and awaits further action.