California bans child marriage, still legal in 32 US states

California has joined a growing number of US states banning child marriage, becoming the 18th state since 2018 to pass such legislation. Previously, the state had no minimum legal age for marriage, allowing minors to wed as long as their parents consented and a judge approved. Under the new law, children will no longer be able to marry after January 1, 2027.

The state also lacked any mechanism allowing people under 18 to divorce, leaving many girls trapped in abusive and exploitative relationships. Unchained At Last, an advocacy group campaigning to end child marriage across the US, said roughly 9,000 girls were married in California each year, with nearly all child marriages involving girls wed to adult men.

Survivors speak out

Survivors Brittany Bee and Sara Tasneen spent years lobbying for the ban in California and nationwide. Bee told the BBC she married at age 17 to escape an abusive home, only to be allegedly abused by her adult husband afterward. She described it as moving "from one prison to another," stressing that children cannot truly consent to marriage.

Tasneen said she was forced to marry a man nearly twice her age when she was 15, meeting her husband for the first time on the morning of their arranged wedding. She became a mother the following year, at 16, and dropped out of school. Tasneen, who has lobbied for the ban since 2017, called the bill's passage a "marathon" finally reaching its finish line.

Former reality TV figure Courtney Stodden, who married actor Doug Hutchison as a minor in 2011 and drew international controversy, said she would keep fighting until children are protected from marriage in all 50 US states.