The state of California, which has the largest population in the United States, has finally banned child marriages.
According to a report by the British newspaper The Guardian on October 1st, on September 30th local time, California Governor Newsom signed House Bill 1267. This law stipulates that anyone under the age of 18 shall not be granted a marriage permit, nor may they establish family relationships with legal significance similar to marriage. There are no exceptions regarding parental consent or court approval. The new law will officially take effect on January 1st, 2027.
Previously, California’s law did not set a minimum age for marriage. Minors could get married as long as they received written consent from at least one parent or guardian, and then obtain court approval. With Oklahoma raising the minimum age for marriage to 18 in May this year, California became one of only three states in the United States without a legal minimum age for marriage. The other two states are Mississippi and New Mexico. After the new California law takes effect, this list will consist of just these two states.
American anti-child marriage protest poster
Nussey said that this is a “measure that should have been taken long ago”. Also present at the signing event was Courtney Stoddard, an American media personality and activist working on the issue of child marriage. In 2011, Stoddard, then 16 years old, married actor Doug Hatchson, who was 51 at the time, with her parents’ consent. She has repeatedly expressed regret over this decision and has been involved in efforts to ban child marriage.
Each state in the United States has its own laws regarding marriage age. As late as 2017, all 50 states had laws that allowed people under 18 to marry. In 2018, Delaware and New Jersey were the first to raise the minimum age for marriage to 18 years old, eliminating all exceptions. Since then, several other states have followed suit.
According to the latest statistics from the American anti-forced marriage organization 'Unchained At Last', California is the 18th state in the United States to pass laws setting the legal age of marriage at 18 years old, with no exceptions. This means that out of 50 states, 32 still allow marriages between minors under 18 years old.
Child marriage is not a rare historical phenomenon in the United States. According to statistics from "Final Liberation," between 2000 and 2021, nearly 315,000 minors in the US married legally. Of these, 86% were girls, and most of them were 16 or 17 years old. However, the youngest spouse among those who married as minors was only 10 years old. Most of the spouses of minor girls were adult males.
California is also one of the states with a high number of child marriages. Data released by the California Women and Girls’ Positioning Committee shows that between 2000 and 2021, approximately 35,000 minors in this state married, with most of them being girls. The “End Child Marriage” organization states that about 9,000 children marry each year in California.
