New Hampshire law bans child marriage. Representative Cassie Levesque's efforts are successful

CONCORD — Child marriage is now officially illegal in New Hampshire after Governor Chris Sununu signed a law on Friday, June 14, raising the marriage age to 18.

“It shows that we understand that times have changed. We're showing the younger generation of girls that they can decide what they want to do,” said Rep. Cassandra Levesque (D-Barrington), who has been fighting to pass this bill since 2018. “You can make your own decisions without someone getting in your way and trying to take that decision-making power away from you.”

With the passage and signing of SB 359, New Hampshire becomes the 13th state in the country to ban child marriage. The bill's lead sponsor was Democratic Senator Debra Altschiller of Stratham, and Levesque was also among the sponsors.

Years of work completed in New Hampshire

It is the culmination of years of work by Levesque, who was still a child when she first advocated for the law.

Levesque first became interested in the issue after attending a Girl Scouts workshop on human trafficking and forced child marriage hosted by UNICEF, which campaigns to end marriage under the age of 18. In New Hampshire, 13-year-old girls and 14-year-old boys have been legally allowed to marry with parental and court consent for over 100 years.

Levesque was only 17 years old and still in high school. When he contacted then-Representative Jackie Cilley (D-Barrington), she filed a bill on Levesque's behalf that would have banned child marriage in New Hampshire. Sununu signed the bill in 2018, but it was a compromise that set the marriage age at 16. Levesque vowed to continue fighting to raise the age further.

Altschiller said in a statement that between 2000 and 2023, 215 adults in New Hampshire married children under the age of 18. Nine of those marriages occurred since the age was raised to 16.

“The reality is that child marriage is a tactic used by child traffickers to control and exploit victims, and that is something we should not allow in our state under any circumstances,” Altschiller said.

Levesque became a member of parliament in the fall of 2018 and has since tried unsuccessfully in at least four legislative sessions to raise the age to 18.

This time, in 2024, Levesque worked with Altschiller to introduce the bill in the Senate.

“The House is a little harder to get through,” Levesque said, referring to her last three attempts at House bills that were either ruled ineligible or put on the floor. “I contacted all the senators and they all responded that they wanted to work on the bill, including the Senate president. And so I always had the full support of the Senate.”

The bill passed the Senate unanimously in March and the House of Representatives in May by a vote of 192 to 174.

Sununu signed the bill on Friday.

“I was very happy that he signed it and very excited that it has now finally been changed,” she said. “After long debates, we have come to the conclusion that it is time for a change and that it is time to enter a more modern society.”

What’s next for Levesque and the issue of child marriage?

Levesque, now 25, believes her young age helped convince other lawmakers of the need for the law. New Hampshire's legislature is one of the oldest in the country.

“It's been a little less time since I was 15, 16,” Levesque said. “When I talked to people, they had the choice of either working or getting married, and most women got married, and that was normal. And that shows how much our society has changed over the decades: women marrying young, starting families young, to 'Hey, I want to have a career, I want to develop as a person before I find someone else, if I find someone else, and that's my choice.'”

Levesque hopes more states will follow New Hampshire's example and raise the minimum marriage age in their laws. She said she will “definitely” testify in other states, and organizations are eyeing Maine next, where the minimum marriage age is 17.

Editor's note: New Hampshire State Senator Debra Altschiller, Democrat of Stratham, is the wife of Howard Altschiller, editor in chief of Seacoast Media Group.

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What’s next for Levesque and the issue of child marriage?

Anna Harden

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Years of work completed in New Hampshire

What’s next for Levesque and the issue of child marriage?

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