For years, the Golden State maintained a glaring legal loophole. Minors could marry with parental consent and a judge's approval. That chapter is closing. Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1267, officially making California the 18th US state to outlaw child marriage entirely.
The law takes effect on January 1, 2027. It sets the absolute minimum age for marriage and domestic partnerships at 18 without exceptions. No parental sign-off. No judge overriding common sense.
The Reality Behind California's Loophole
Before this legislation, California had no statutory minimum age for marriage under specific circumstances. Thousands of minors entered legal unions over the past couple of decades. Data compiled by advocacy groups like Unchained At Last shows that hundreds of thousands of children were married across the United States between 2000 and 2018. Most of these minors were teenage girls married off to adult men.
Critics of previous legislative attempts often argued that blanket bans might disrupt pregnant or parenting teens. But advocates and survivors fought back with hard facts. Teenage girls who marry early face staggering hurdles. They are far more likely to drop out of high school, live in chronic poverty, and suffer severe health complications later in life.
Survivors Speak Out
The momentum behind AB 1267 came directly from survivors who shared their personal trauma. Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin authored the bill after listening to women who had been trapped in unions they never freely chose.
Celebrity survivor Courtney Stodden attended the bill signing in Sacramento. Stodden, who was married at 16, celebrated the new policy publicly, noting that the measure protects the next generation from systemic pressure and abuse disguised as legal tradition.
The Broader National Landscape
Even with California joining the fold, child marriage remains legal in more than 30 US states. There is still no federal law establishing a minimum age nationwide. Activists point out that loopholes persist across much of the country, leaving thousands of vulnerable minors unprotected.
States that still allow child marriage under varying exceptions face mounting pressure to follow California's lead. Lawmakers in other states are reviewing their own statutes to determine if parental consent exceptions protect children or enable abuse.
If you want to track how your state handles marriage laws or support advocacy groups working to end minor marriages nationwide, check local legislative dockets and support survivor-led organizations like Unchained At Last. The fight to protect minors across the remaining states is far from finished.
California ends parental-consent exception for minors to marry
This video details Governor Gavin Newsom signing AB 1267 to end the parental-consent exceptions that previously allowed minors to marry in California.
