Dressed in wedding gowns and chains, and carrying bouquets and signs, a group of protesters gathered at the Massachusetts State House last month to protest laws that allow girls in the Commonwealth to marry when they are just 12 years old if their parents give permission. Anti-child marriage activists believe this law, the lowest age permitted for wedlock by any state, has nothing to do with love and everything to do with trickery, bribery, trafficking, legalized rape, or other human rights abuses.

The minimum age for marriage is set by each state and differs on “loophole” requirements, or exemptions, such as parental consent. Most states allow marriage without parental permission for 18-year-olds but set various exemptions or legal loopholes that permit younger marriages. Massachusetts is the only state that allows girls to marry with parental consent when they are 12 and boys to marry at 14.

“Unchained at Last,” the national organization that staged the Boston protest on September 22, is “dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in the United States,” according to its website. They marched in support of “An Act to End Child Marriage in Massachusetts,” H1478/S24, sponsored by Rep. Kay Khan of Newton and others. The bill seeks to amend Chapter 207 of the Commonwealth’s General Laws to require that “a magistrate or minister shall not solemnize a marriage if a party to the marriage is under the age of 18.”

That is a change from the current law that says that a marriage may not be “solemnized” if one of the parties is a “nonage minor” under 18 who meets various exemptions. These ultra-liberal exemptions are the ones that are sparking national outrage and protest. Currently, to obtain permission for a nonage minor to marry, the parent must just ask permission during a hearing before the probate or district court. If approved at the discretion of a judge, the filing party will receive notice and a certificate that allows the marriage.

Chapter 207 was upheld in the case of Parton vs. Hervey in 1854. That year is not a typo. In that case, a 13-year old girl married without her mother’s consent. The court ruled that such a marriage is not void as a matter of law; it is merely voidable. The case set the age of consent as 14 for males and 12 for females and it remains there to this day if authorized by the probate or district court. Massachusetts Law Updates, the blog of the Massachusetts Trial Law Libraries, explains, “Each case is simply decided on its own merits.”

Many advocacy organizations, however, do not believe there can ever be merits. “Human Rights Watch,” an independent international human rights organization, for example, recently wrote Charlie Barker, the Governor of Massachusetts, urging his support of H1478. They said the legislation “would protect children from the dangers inherent in child marriages.”

The letter went on to explain that between 2000 and 2016, 57 marriages between nonage minor girls were approved by judges, most of which were to adult men. Such marriages, they said, show that “child marriage is deeply harmful,” since they put girls at risk of “negative health outcomes, curtailed education, poverty and domestic violence.” The “International Labor Organization” equates forced marriage with “modern slavery.”

“Unchained at Last,” the group that organized the recent Boston protest, provides more chilling statistics. It cites its own study that found nearly 300,000 children, some as young as 10, were legally married in the U.S, between 2000 and 2018. The study summarizes that these “can easily be forced marriages since minors have limited legal rights with which to escape an unwanted marriage.” Massachusetts, for example, does not allow minors to file for divorce until they are 18. In that state, marriage does not equal emancipation or increase the minor’s legal rights. The study also concludes that child marriage laws “undermine statutory rape laws” and can “cover up sex crimes” because approximately 60,000 of the marriages occurred at an “age or spousal age difference that should have been considered a sex crime.”

The lack of federal law on child marriage could also encourage illegal immigration via a spousal or fiancé visa. In addition, protestors argue that federal criminal codes that prohibit sex with any child between the ages of 12 and 15 “specifically exempt those who first marry the child.”

State laws governing marriage-age requirements and exemptions vary widely. All states except Nebraska generally allow marriage at 18. Nebraska sets the legal age at 19. Six states: Delaware, New Jersey, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and New York, completely forbid marriage by those under 18. All other states require additional permissions, which may be by parents, judges, or both. There are also exemptions for emancipated minors. Nine states prohibit marriage between a person over 21 and one who is under the age of 18. Sometimes, there are additional exemptions for special circumstances, such as pregnancy or the previous birth of a child.

Most anti-child marriage advocacy organizations believe the entire child marriage disgrace is avoidable and the solution is simple. “Unchained at Last” and another advocacy organization “Equality Now” say all states should just enact new laws similar to those that have already been enacted. These laws eliminate all legal loopholes or exemptions that allow marriage before the age of 18. The federal government, too, must set the minimum marriage age at 18, and it has to include this higher age on marriage visas and eliminate a marriage exemption for statutory rape.

These changes cost nothing, will protect children instead of rapists, and will save lives. It is unclear why such simple laws continue to evade passage.