The legislation was signed alongside Courtney Stodden, who was allowed by her parents to marry actor Doug Hutchison when she was 16. Stodden, who has campaigned against child marriage, described the legislation as a “victory” and said survivors should never have been expected to carry the burden of such experiences.
Newsom described the measure as a “long overdue” step to protect young Californians and minors, while Stodden said she would continue campaigning until child marriage is prohibited across all 50 states.
Other survivors also welcomed the legislation, including Brittany Bee, who said she married at 17 to escape an abusive home but later experienced abuse from her adult husband.
“I was just going from one prison to another,” Bee told the BBC, adding that children cannot give meaningful consent to marriage.
California becomes the 18th US state to ban child marriage since 2018.
Before the new law, California had no minimum legal age for marriage when parents consented and a judge approved the union. Minors also lacked a legal mechanism to independently obtain a divorce.
Advocacy group Unchained At Last estimates that about 9,000 girls were married each year in California, with almost all child marriages involving girls and adult men.
Sara Tasneem, who said she was forced to marry a man nearly twice her age at 15, also welcomed the change. She became a mother at 16 and later dropped out of school.
“To have seen the arc of this bill come to fruition has been a marathon,” Tasneem said. “I’m just grateful that kids cannot get married after January 1, 2027 in California.”
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