California has officially banned child marriage after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation requiring everyone to be at least 18 to marry in the state.
The law, which takes effect on January 1, 2027, was signed by Newsom alongside Courtney Stodden, who was allowed by her parents to marry 50-year-old actor Doug Hutchison at 16. Stodden, who has campaigned against child marriage, described the new law as a “victory” and said survivors “should never have been expected to carry this burden.”
Newsom called the legislation a “long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors.” Stodden said she would “keep fighting until children are protected from marriage in all 50 states.”
Other survivors also welcomed the change. Brittany Bee, who was married at 17 to escape an abusive home but said she was later abused by her adult husband, told the BBC: “I was just going from one prison to another.” She added, “People have the audacity to tell me that I made a choice—kids, they can’t consent.”
California becomes the 18th US state to ban child marriage since 2018. Previously, there was no minimum legal age for marriage in the state if parents consented and a judge approved the union. Minors also had no mechanism to obtain a divorce.
Advocacy group Unchained At Last estimates that about 9,000 girls were married each year in California, with almost all child marriages involving girls and adult men.
Sara Tasneem, who said she was forced to marry a man nearly twice her age at 15, called the change “surreal.” She became a mother at 16 and dropped out of school.
“To have seen the arc of this bill come to fruition has been a marathon,” she said. “I’m just grateful that kids cannot get married after January 1, 2027 in California.”
