Governor Charlie Baker signed a law on 7-28-2022 that raises the legal age for marriage to 18 with no exceptions, ultimately ending child marriage in Massachusetts. This is a huge win for survivors and advocates that have been arduously working to ban laws that allow child marriage in the United States. The state of Massachusetts will now protect children from being forced or coerced into a legally binding contract that strips away any protection and rights they have as single minors. According to state records, 1,246 children as young as 14 were married in Massachusetts between 2000 and 2018 and 89.9 percent of them were girls wed to adult men. In 2020 alone, 14 petitions were filed for the marriage of minors to adults in the Commonwealth.

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