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Polygamy was outlawed in federal territories by the 1882 Edmunds Act, and there are laws against the practice in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, [1] and Puerto Rico. [2] Because state laws exist, polygamy is not actively prosecuted at the federal level.
Why is polygamy illegal? Polygamy has been outlawed in most countries - with polyandry being practically completely outlawed. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has also long urged...
The legal status of polygamy varies widely around the world. Polygamy is legal in 58 out of nearly 200 sovereign states, the vast majority of them being Muslim-majority countries. Some countries that permit polygamy have restrictions, such as requiring the first wife to give her consent.
Undoubtedly, the fact that polygamy is illegal in the United States is the greatest contributing factor, as it means that most U.S. citizens have no understanding of how polygamy works, where it is legal, and of the extreme harm it causes to both wives and children.
Judges have argued for years that polygamy is abhorrent and unnatural, which justifies making it illegal. The same arguments were advanced for years when upholding laws criminalizing homosexual conduct between consenting adults and same-sex marriage.
This means that polygamy is still illegal and capable of being criminally punished. [28] Even further, adultery is still illegal in seventeen states, three of which classify it as a felony. [29] But both the times and society’s understanding of marriage has changed.
Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states in the U.S.; in Utah it currently remains a controversial issue that has been subject to legislative battles throughout the years. As of 2020 Utah is the only state where the practice is designated as an infraction rather than the more serious designation as a crime.
In some countries, such as India, polygamy is legal only for Muslims. In others, such as Russia and South Africa, it is illegal but not criminalized.
As all forms of polygamy are illegal in the U.S., the legal status of the LDS Church was challenged as a result of its embrace of polygyny during its early history. As a result, the church...
Many of the countries that permit polygamy have Muslim majorities, and the practice is rare in many of them. Fewer than 1% of Muslim men live with more than one spouse in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Egypt – all countries where the practice is legal at least for Muslims.