"Every year in poor countries, millions of girls - preteens and teens - become the wives of older men...This custom is not marriage, but rather sanctioned sexual abuse and a human rights violation that destroys girls' lives."
-Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn)-
Rep. McCollum recently introduced new legislation that would authorize $100 million to be utilized over four years to stop child marriages, a practice most prevalent in West Africa and South Asia. Additional bills would require that the State Department include child marriage statistics in annual human rights reports on other countries. Read more here.
Meanwhile, Marie Cocco is wondering what we're doing here to alleviate teen pregnancy. In "Birth Control Is Back," she explains that "the U.S. rate of teen births is still the highest in the industrialized world...according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Nearly a third of American girls and young women will get pregnant at least once before they reach 20."