California has officially banned child marriage, putting an end to the practice that is still legal in the majority of U.S. states. The state’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation to end the practice and said it is a “long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors.” “Today, California kids are safer than ever before,” Newsom said. Alongside Newsom as he signed the legislation was advocate and survivor of child marriage, Courtney Stodden.
Stodden’s parents allowed her to marry the 50-year-old actor Doug Hutchison at the age of 16, a relationship she characterizes as abusive. In a post on Instagram liked over 20,000 times, Stodden wrote, “i spent years wishing someone had protected the little girl i used to be. today, california protected the next one.” California had previously been one of only three states in the country that had no minimum age to wed. The new law states that people must be 18 to get married in the Golden State.
California lawmakers had tried for nearly a decade to fully ban child marriage. Earlier efforts faced opposition from groups including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, which raised concerns about minors' reproductive autonomy and access to healthcare. A 2018 law instead introduced safeguards requiring judges to assess potential coercion and abuse.
Those concerns shifted in 2026, when Planned Parenthood took a neutral position on the ban, removing a significant source of opposition. The legislation subsequently passed and was signed by Newsom. Child marriage is defined by the United Nations as a marriage where at least one of the parties is under 18, as children cannot provide full, free and informed consent.
UNICEF states that this is a human rights violation and that girls are “disproportionately affected,” with child marriage among boys tantamount to one sixth of that of girls around the world. Advocates warn that child marriage leaves minors open to abuse and vulnerable since they have limited legal rights. In the U.S., there are further concerns about a patchwork of state laws, as it is easy for minors to be transported to be married in states where child marriage remains legal.
Marriage for those under the age of 18 was legal in all 50 states as of 2017 . Now, nearly a decade later, 18 states and Washington D.C. have ended child marriage by raising the legal age to the age of 18. Between 2000 and 2018, nearly 300,000 children as young as 10 were legally married in the U.S.
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