Governor Gavin Newsom Signs Law Banning Child Marriage in California
California has officially banned child marriage after Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation requiring people to be at least 18 to marry in the state.
The new law will take effect on 1 January 2027, making California the 18th US state to ban child marriage since 2018.
Newsom described the legislation as a “long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors”.
He signed the bill alongside Courtney Stodden, whose parents allowed her to marry a 50-year-old Hollywood actor when she was 16.
Stodden, who has campaigned against child marriage, called the legislation a “victory” and said survivors should “never have been expected to carry this burden”.
Stodden said she would “keep fighting until children are protected from marriage in all 50 states”.
She married actor Doug Hutchison in 2011, sparking international controversy and leading to appearances on several US reality television programmes.
Other survivors also welcomed the legislation.
“California has sent a clear message to the world today,” Brittany Bee, a former child bride, told the BBC. “A message of hope for all children that they may be free from systemic violence. That they may choose their own path.”
Bee said she was married at 17 to escape an abusive home but alleged that she was subsequently abused by her adult husband.
“I was just going from one prison to another,” she explained. “People have the audacity to tell me that I made a choice – kids, they can’t consent.”
Bee and other survivors have spent years campaigning for child marriage to be prohibited in California and across the US.
About a decade ago, child marriage was permitted in every US state, but a growing number have since changed their laws.
Before the new legislation, California had no statutory minimum age for marriage. Children could marry with parental consent and approval from a judge.
There was also no mechanism for people under 18 to obtain a divorce, which advocates said left some young people trapped in abusive relationships.
Unchained At Last, an advocacy group campaigning against child marriage in the US, estimates that about 9,000 girls were married each year in California and that almost all child marriages involved girls marrying adult men.
Advocates say many Americans are unaware that child marriage remains legal in 32 states or of allegations of abuse associated with the practice.
Sara Tasneem, who said she was forced to marry a man nearly twice her age at 15, told the BBC it felt “surreal” to see California recognise that child marriage should be prohibited.
Tasneem said she began campaigning on the issue in 2017 after being introduced to her husband on the morning of their arranged marriage.
“I was forced to be his wife and that day, my entire life changed,” she told the BBC.
She became a mother the following year at 16 and left school.
“To have seen the arc of this bill come to fruition has been a marathon,” Tasneem said. “I’m just grateful that kids cannot get married after January 1, 2027 in California.”
