Some girls in Texas, as young as 12 years old, are being forced to marry men much older than they are. And then they are living a life of servitude and exploitation. It’s sounds like a Margaret Atwood novel but it’s a reality in Texas. In Texas, 6.9 of every 1,000 teens between ages 15 and 17 married in 2014, second only to West Virginia
Senate Bill 1705, if passed into law, would make anyone getting married under the age of 18 more difficult.
Jeanne Smoot is a legislative counsel with the Tahirih Justice Center which has been at the forefront of changing the law.
