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A shotgun wedding is an expression referring to a type of wedding which is arranged not because of the desire of the participants, but to avoid embarrassment due to an unintentional pregnancy. The phrase is an American colloquialism based on a supposed scenario (hyperbole) that the father of the pregnant daughter, almost by accepted custom, must resort to using coercive force (the shotgun) to ensure that the man who impregnated her goes through with the wedding.

The "shotgun wedding" has become simply an expression, referring to any hasty marriage arranged due to unplanned pregnancy. The use of duress or violent coercion to marry is no longer common in the U.S., although many anecdotal stories and folksongs record instances of such coercion in 18th- and 19th-century America. Often a couple will arrange a shotgun wedding without explicit outside encouragement, and some religious teachings consider it a moral imperative to marry in that situation. In the modern American usage, the term is sometimes used for a forced marriage on discovery of sexual relations, even when the bride has not become pregnant.

One purpose can be to get recourse from the male for the act of impregnation; another reason is to ensure that the child is taken care of and that both parents stay together to raise him or her. In some cases, as in early America and in the Middle East, a major objective was the restoring of social honor to the mother. The practice is also a loophole method of preventing the birth of legally illegitimate children, or if the marriage occurs early enough, to conceal that conception occurred prior to marriage. In some societies the stigma attached to pregnancy out of wedlock can be enormous, and coercive means (in spite of the legal defense of undue influence) for gaining recourse are often seen as the prospective father-in-law's "right," and an important, albeit unconventional, coming of age event for the young father-to-be.

The phenomenon has become less common as the stigma associated with out-of-wedlock births has declined and the number of these births increased.

Sometimes a woman who marries while pregnant, regardless of the situation, is simply referred to as a shotgun bride.

• Forced marriage

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