children had been married in the United States, 
mostly to adult men. 
(2) The United States Global Strategy to Em-
power Adolescent Girls, released last year by the 
State Department recognizes marriage before 18 to 
be a ‘‘human rights abuse’’. 
(3) Child marriages in the United States have 
included parties as young as 10. 
(4) Marriages in the United States have given 
a semblance of legitimacy to relationships that would 
otherwise be illegal. 
(5) Women who marry at 18 or younger face a 
23 percent higher risk of heart attack, diabetes, can-
cer and stroke than do women who marry between 
ages 19 and 25. 
(6) Women who wed before 18 also are at in-
creased risk of developing various psychiatric dis-
orders. 
(7) American girls who marry before 19 are 50 
percent more likely than their unmarried peers to 
drop out of high school and four times less likely to 
graduate from college. 
(8) A girl who marries young is 31 percentage 
points more likely to live in poverty when she is 
older. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
21:01 Jan 21, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4867.IH
H4867
ethrower on DSK3G9T082PROD with BILLS
(9) Women who marry before 18 are three 
times more likely to be beaten by their spouses than 
women who wed at 21 or older. 
SEC. 3. POWERS RESERVED TO THE STATES. 
No State shall be required to give effect to any public 
act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State re-
specting a relationship where one or both persons are 
below the marriageable age that is treated as a marriage 
under the laws of such other State, or a right or claim 
arising from such relationship. 
SEC. 4. DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE. 
In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, 
or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the var-
ious administrative bureaus and agencies of the United 
States, the word ‘‘marriage’’ means only a legal union be-
tween two people of marriageable age, and the word 
‘‘spouse’’ refers only to a person of marriageable age. 
SEC. 5. EXCEPTIONS. 
(a) SECTION 3.—Section 3 shall be inapplicable to 
any marriage where the parties involved have received the 
approval of a judge appointed or elected pursuant to the 
laws of any State or the United States. 
(b) SECTION 4.—Section 4 shall be inapplicable to 
any marriage where the parties involved have received the 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
21:01 Jan 21, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H4867.IH
H4867
ethrower on DSK3G9T082PROD with BILLS
approval of a judge appointed or elected pursuant to the 
laws of any State or the United States. 
(c) INDEPENDENT COUNSEL.—Subsections (a) and 
(b) shall only apply in cases where the minor in question 
was represented by independent counsel. 
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 
the several States, the District of Columbia, the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American 
Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, the Com-
monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, any 
other territory or possession of the United States, 
and each federally recognized Indian Tribe. 
(2) MARRIAGEABLE
AGE.—The term ‘‘mar-
riageable age’’ means the age of 18 or the age as 
defined by a State, whichever is older. 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
21:01 Jan 21, 2018
Jkt 079200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H4867.IH
H4867
ethrower on DSK3G9T082PROD with BILLS