California Becomes 18th State to Outlaw Child Marriage as Newsom Signs Long-Awaited Ban

California has formally prohibited child marriage after Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation ending a practice that remains legal in 32 other US states. The new law, which takes effect on 1 January, requires that anyone wishing to wed in the state must be at least 18 years old. Newsom described the measure as a "long overdue" step to safeguard young people, framing the change as a fundamental protection for minors rather than a matter of tradition or parental preference.

The bill was signed alongside Courtney Stodden, a survivor who became a household name in 2011 when her parents permitted her to marry Hollywood actor Doug Hutchison at the age of 16. Hutchison, then 50, had appeared in films including The Green Mile, A Time to Kill and I Am Sam. The couple's relationship generated international headlines and led to appearances on US reality programmes, among them the VH1 series Couples Therapy. Stodden, who has since campaigned against the practice, called the law a "victory" and argued that survivors should never have been made to bear the burden of changing a system that permitted their marriages.

"It's a victory," Stodden said of the signing, adding that she intends to keep fighting "until children are protected from marriage in all 50 states." Her remarks underscore the patchwork nature of US marriage law, in which age requirements vary dramatically from one state to the next despite a widespread assumption that a national minimum age already exists.

Other survivors also welcomed the change. Brittany Bee, a former child bride who has spent years advocating for reform, told the BBC that California had sent a clear message to the world. She described it as a message of hope for children, one that affirms their right to be free from systemic violence and to choose their own path. Bee said she was married at 17 in an attempt to escape an abusive home, only to allege that she was then abused by her adult husband. "I was just going from one prison to another," she said. She pushed back against those who characterise such marriages as a young person's choice, arguing that children cannot consent.

The reform represents the culmination of roughly a decade of organising by survivors and advocacy groups. In California, there had previously been no legal minimum age for marriage. Children could wed provided that their parents consented and a judge approved the union. There was also no established mechanism for anyone under 18 to obtain a divorce, a gap that advocates say left many girls trapped in abusive and predatory relationships with no practical route out.

Unchained At Last, a national organisation campaigning to end child marriage across the United States, estimated that approximately 9,000 girls were married each year in California. The group has also found that almost all child marriages in the country involve girls marrying adult men. Advocates argue that public awareness of the issue remains strikingly low, with many Americans unaware that child marriage is legal in so many states or that it has generated allegations of abuse.

Sara Tasneen, who says she was forced to marry a man nearly twice her age when she was 15, told the BBC it felt "surreal" to see the state finally recognise that the practice should be banned. She began lobbying for change herself in 2017, and said she met her husband on the morning of their arranged marriage. "I was forced to be his wife and that day, my entire life changed," she said. She became a mother the following year, at 16, and dropped out of school.

Tasneen described the legislative process as a marathon, saying she was grateful that children will no longer be able to marry in California after 1 January 2027. Her account illustrates a broader pattern identified by campaigners: child marriage in the US is frequently tied to coercion, pregnancy, immigration status or attempts by young people to escape difficult homes, rather than to consensual teenage romance.

California's move reflects a widening national trend. About ten years ago, child marriage was permitted in every US state. Since 2018, however, a growing number of legislatures have acted to close loopholes, and California is now the 18th state to impose a ban. That leaves 32 states where the practice remains legal, often through exceptions that allow minors to marry with parental consent, judicial approval or both.

The new California law closes the parental-consent and judicial-approval pathways that previously allowed minors to wed. By raising the minimum age to 18 with no exceptions, the state joins a group of jurisdictions that advocates regard as having adopted the strongest possible protections. The change takes effect on 1 January, meaning that from the start of next year, marriage in California will be restricted to adults.

For survivors, the signing marks both an ending and a continuation. Stodden has made clear that her campaign will now focus on the remaining states, while Bee and Tasneen have emphasised that recognition of past harm matters alongside prevention. Advocates say the next phase of the effort will involve persuading lawmakers elsewhere that child marriage is not a fringe issue but one that affects thousands of young people each year, most of them girls.

The law's supporters also point to the practical consequences of the old system. Because minors who married in California had no clear path to divorce, they could remain legally bound to abusive partners well into adulthood. The absence of a minimum age also meant that a judge's signature, rather than a young person's independent consent, could determine the course of a child's life. The new statute is intended to remove that possibility entirely.

California's decision is likely to intensify pressure on the 32 states that have yet to act. Campaigners argue that the current map creates a form of inequality, in which a child's protection depends on which state they happen to live in. As survivors tell their stories and legislatures weigh similar bills, the debate is shifting from whether child marriage should be prohibited to how quickly the remaining states will follow California's lead.