McCollum Introduces Bill to Protect Girls from Child Marriage

Press Release

McCollum Introduces Bill to Protect Girls from Child Marriage

Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) has introduced the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2007 (H.R. 3175), legislation to prevent forced marriages involving girls in countries such as Ethiopia, India, Uganda and Niger. Each day, more than 25,000 girls, some as young as nine or ten years old, are married to older men in developing countries. If nothing changes, another 100 million girls will be married over the next ten years.

When a man, often decades older, marries a thirteen or fourteen year old girl, it is sometimes called a "harmful traditional practice." Rep. McCollum's legislation labels it a human rights abuse. Beyond being socially sanctioned sexual exploitation, child marriage regularly condemns girls to extreme poverty, serious maternal health risks, and a greater risk of HIV exposure. While the U.S. makes major foreign assistance investments in improving maternal and child health, fighting HIV, and educating girls, child marriage directly undermines these efforts.

"Young brides end up with broken bodies and broken lives, subjected to sanctioned sexual abuse and much higher risks of disease and death," McCollum said. "Every girl, no matter where, deserves the opportunity to grow up healthy, safe, and educated, and has the basic human right to make her own choice about when and whom to marry."

H.R. 3175 supports the demonstrated strategy for preventing and reducing child marriage: investing in schooling, safe community spaces, skills development and other means of empowering girls that improve their status and give them the freedom to delay marriage and choose their partners.

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