By admin 
After years of lobbying from women’s rights advocates and child marriage survivors, California will ban child marriages starting next year.
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Current law allowed exemptions for minors under 18 who obtain parental permission and a court order. Assembly Bill 1267, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Wednesday, bans marriages outright for people under 18, joining 17 other states that outlaw the practice.
“This is a long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors. Today, California kids are safer than ever before,” Newsom said in a statement.
AB 1267 goes into effect Jan. 1 and voids any ceremonies performed on or after that date in which at least one party is underage.
He signed the bill in his office with child advocate Courtney Stodden, whose marriage as a 16-year-old beauty pageant queen to 50-year-old actor Doug Hutchinson, made headlines in 2011. Stodden said the relationship was “predatory” and “abusive.”
“Governor Newsom’s action today made clear to me and to survivors of child marriage everywhere that we should never have been expected to carry this burden,” Stodden said.
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One of the bill’s authors, Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, said she was motivated to act after she had witnessed firsthand child marriages while working as a local elections clerk and civil marriages commissioner.
“The heart of this effort has always been the survivors,” she said. “They told us what it means to be a child in a marriage you did not freely choose. They 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. Because of them, California children are safer.”
The effort to ban child marriage in the state has spanned nine years of lobbying. Similar legislation failed to pass in 2023 after stalling in a committee hearing and in 2018 after pushback from the American Civil Liberties Union.
This story was originally published September 30, 2026 at 2:32 PM with the headline “California to ban child marriage in 2027 after Gov. Gavin Newsom signs law.”
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