Any mar­riage involv­ing a minor is con­sid­ered a forced mar­riage by the Unit­ed Nations Office of the High Com­mis­sion­er for Human Rights. “The U.S. State Depart­ment con­sid­ers forced child mar­riage a form of child abuse and has called child mar­riage a human rights abuse.”“Child mar­riage often under­mines statu­to­ry rape laws. Sim­i­lar­ly, Amer­i­can men are legal­ly import­ing child brides from overseas.”The oth­er states that have banned child mar­riage are:DelawareNew Jer­seyPenn­syl­va­niaMin­neso­taRhode IslandNew YorkMass­a­chu­settsVer­montCon­necti­cutMichi­ganVir­giniaNew Hamp­shireMaineCal­i­for­nia, Alas­ka, Hawai’i, Ida­ho, and Mon­tana have all yet to ban child mar­riage. Cal­i­for­nia has no min­i­mum age to mar­ry, while Hawai’i spec­i­fies a min­i­mum age of fif­teen. Each time a state bans child mar­riage, we get clos­er to hav­ing a coun­try that lives up its val­ues of respect­ing human rights.