California banned child marriage on Wednesday (Sep 30) after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a state bill into law, amid vocal opposition to the practice that is still legal in 32 US states. The new law, which will come into effect on January 1, 2027, sets 18 as the minimum age to be married or enter a domestic partnership in California. The state did not have any age limit previously, and a child was allowed to be married as long as they had parental consent and a judge’s approval.
Reacting to the ban, Newson said it was a ‘long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors’. He signed the bill into law alongside Courtney Stodden, a model who infamously married actor Doug Hutchinson at the age of 16 when he was more than three decades her senior. Despite the success in California, Stodden vowed to continue advocating for marriage bans across the US.
“California is a victory, but I’m not stopping here. I will keep fighting until children are protected from marriage in all 50 states,” she said.
Stodden has been one of the biggest advocates to end the practice, adding that survivors of child marriage should “never have been expected to carry this burden”.
Child Marriage In US
About a decade ago, the practice was still allowed across all US states, but more and more states have been altering laws. California is the 18th to ban it since 2018. According to data compiled by child-marriage advocacy groups using state marriage records, 314,000 minors were legally married in the US between 2000 and 2021, including girls as young as 10.
At least 66,415 of these marriages, approximately one in five, took place when the bride was at an age when sexual relations would be considered a crime, according to Unchained At Last, an NGO working to end forced and child marriage in the US.