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| photo credit: Brown Girl Magazine |
New York becomes only the sixth state to officially ban child marriage. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the legislation on July 22, 2021, and the law took effect in August.
Governor Cuomo said in a statement, "Children should be allowed to live their childhood and I thank the many legislators and advocates who worked diligently to advance this measure and further prevent forced marriages in this state."
The new law follows legislation the governor signed in 2017, removing the ability for 17-year-olds to be married with parental and judicial consent.
Leading sponsors were Senator Julia Salazar and Assembly Member Phil Ramos.
Said Salazar, "Regardless of maturity level, minors lack sufficient legal rights and autonomy that they need to protect them if they enter a marriage contract before becoming adults. The vast majority of minors who enter a marriage are teenage girls, and getting married before adulthood often has devastating consequences for them."
Ramos said, "Naila's Law, which will raise the age of consent for marriage to 18 and prohibit marriage if either person is underage, is named after one brave survivor of forced child marriage."
Naila Amin was forced into marriage at the age of 13. Now an adult, she founded the Naila Amin Foundation to stop this harmful practice.
Consider this: Mississippi will marry girls at the age of 15 while boys have to be at least 17. Both minimums can be waived by a judge, effectively lowering the minimum age to zero.
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