child marriage 4/29/2020 PA is about to end child marriage!

Take that, coronavirus.

Both houses of the Pennsylvania legislature just voted unanimously (and remotely) to end child marriage — a huge victory for girls and boys and a giant “you can’t stop us” to covid-19. The bill they approved, HB360, now heads to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk — and he has promised he will sign it.

Under the current law, the effective marriage age in Pennsylvania is zero. As of 2014, an estimated 2,323 children age 15 to 17 living in Pennsylvania had already been married.

That might end soon, thanks to the leadership of the bill’s bipartisan sponsors: Reps. Jesse Topper and Perry Warren and Sens. John Sabatina, Judy Schwank and Wayne Langerholc. Pennsylvania might soon become the third U.S. state, after Delaware and New Jersey, where our advocacy helped to eliminate all marriage before age 18. The Pennsylvania legislature would be the first to end child marriage unanimously.