AHA’s Michigan child marriage victory marks a major milestone – thanks to all our supporters!

Published 7/14/2023 

Below, you can read a message from our Director of Policy and Women’s Programs Michele Hanash on AHA’s recent milestone victories.

I am so happy to share with you the great news that Michigan, my home state, has passed 6 of the 10 bills needed to end child marriage!

Due to procedural technicalities, the remaining 4 bills will have to wait until September to be passed, but that shouldn’t dilute our joy too much. This is a real accomplishment and I am so proud that my home state has taken a bold step in ending this blight on the American spirit forever.

Michigan will be the 10th state to ban child marriage—meaning that when the rest of the bills pass, we will have finally reached double digits and 1 in 5 states will have outlawed this abusive practice! You can watch an excerpt of my testimony in support of the bills here and you can view the full hearing, including the rest of my testimony, here.

This is a real milestone. Earlier this year, Vermont and Connecticut also banned child marriage.

Let’s keep the momentum going until all 50 states have done so!

These victories are your victories. Thanks to your support, AHA Foundation and its allies have been able to fight hard for these bills. Thank you so much.

In other news, Washington state banned female genital mutilation (FGM) in another great victory this April (read more here). It looks like 2023 is turning into an amazing year for women’s rights in the U.S.!

If you want to keep supporting AHA’s work to end FGM and child marriage in the U.S., please consider giving a gift today.

Who knows? With your help in keeping the momentum going, perhaps we will soon be celebrating more victories—the 11th or even 12th state to end child marriage!

Together, we can end child marriage and FGM in the U.S. forever. Let’s keep it up!

Gratefully,

Director of Policy and Women’s Programs, AHA Foundation

HELP US KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING: DONATE TODAY