Browsing Tag: Child Brides

Worldwide, complications in pregnancy are the number one killer of girls and young women aged 15-19. Every year 50,000 teenage girls and young women die during pregnancy or childbirth, in many cases because their bodies are not ready to bear children.

When the second annual G(irls)20 Summit got under way Tuesday, each of the 21 delegates stood up and finished the sentence “I am here because …” Answers ranged from acting as a voice for women around the world to questioning the lack of women working in science.

A girl under the age of 18 is married every three seconds -- that's 10 million every year -- often without her consent and sometimes to a much older man, according to the children’s charity Plan UK.

One in seven girls in developing countries is married before her 15th birthday—often to a man twice her age or older. Decisions about if and when to marry a girl are often made without her input, and sometimes without her knowledge. Child marriage puts girls, some as young as seven or eight, at risk of problems that will impact the rest of their lives.