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The measure, known as AB 1267 and authored by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, eliminates previous provisions that permitted minors of any age to wed with one parent’s consent and a judge’s approval, according to the governor’s office. It takes effect January 1, 2027, and was signed during a ceremony that included child marriage survivor Courtney Stodden. Assemblymember Pellerin said the heart of this effort has always been the survivors.
Unchained At Last data places the number of child marriages in California at nearly 35,000 between 2000 and 2021. A joint report from Unchained At Last and Equality Now estimated that approximately 315,000 minors were married across the United States from 2000 to 2021, with 86 percent of cases involving girls wed to adult men. The organizations’ assessment found that more than 66,000 of those marriages involved age gaps or circumstances that would otherwise qualify as statutory rape.
California had ranked among only three states with no minimum marriage age prior to the new law, along with Mississippi and New Mexico, a Tahirih Justice Center review showed. Since Delaware and New Jersey enacted the first absolute bans in 2018, 16 additional states had prohibited all child marriage by mid-2026, according to Freedom United figures. The California law brings the total of states with complete bans to 18.
Advocacy efforts led by Unchained At Last and survivors spanned nearly a decade in California, with prior bills failing in 2018 and 2023 amid opposition from the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, CalMatters reported. Those groups did not contest the current legislation, enabling it to pass both chambers with bipartisan votes before reaching the governor. Survivor Brittany Bee, who was married as a teenager, joined years of campaigns highlighting how the old system left many trapped without easy access to divorce.
A Journal of Adolescent Health study documented a national decline in child marriage rates from 2000 to 2019 even as the practice continued in states with exceptions. Unchained At Last’s founder Fraidy Reiss stated that all we are doing with any judicial review process is putting the onus on a terrified child. Governor Newsom’s office described the signing as a long-overdue protection for minors.
With the change, attention shifts to the 32 states where some form of child marriage remains permissible under parental or judicial consent, according to data compiled by World Population Review. A 2025 Equality Now assessment called for continued state-by-state reforms to address gaps in tracking and enforcement. Public health records in California had shown between 10 and 17 minor-involved marriages annually in recent years before the ban.
