California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation into law banning child marriage in the state by eliminating previous provisions that allowed it if a parent consented.
Under the current rules, in effect until Jan. 1, a minor could get a license to marry by obtaining a court order and if at least one parent or guardian agreed to the marriage.
California State Assembly Bill 1267 removes that provision and prohibits “a person under 18 years of age from being issued a marriage license or from establishing a domestic partnership,” per the text of the law.
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The Democratic governor said in a press release that the law “is a long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors. Today, California kids are safer than ever before.”
Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, Santa Cruz County Democrat, said in the release that child marriage victims who pushed for the law’s passage “told us about coercion and abuse hidden behind the appearance of consent.
“They told us how difficult it can be for a minor to ask for help, find an attorney, leave home, or escape the very adults who are supposed to protect them,” she said.
Currently, about 9,000 minors are married in California each year, according to anti-child marriage nonprofit group Unchained At Last, with nearly all such marriages occurring between girls and adult men.
With the bill’s passage, California joins Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, American Samoa, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands in forbidding all minor marriage, Unchained At Last says on its website.
All those bans were passed after 2017, Unchained At Last said. Puerto Rico also bans people under 18 from getting married, but since the age of majority in the territory is 21, minor marriage is technically legal under Puerto Rican law.
“Today, California finally joins many other states in banning child marriage with no exceptions or loopholes. Children, especially girls, in California will no longer face being exploited or coerced into marriage, handed over to a predator who should have been prosecuted instead, or having their human rights violated,” said Darcy Totten, executive director of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.
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