A state bill authored by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin of San Jose that would set the minimum legal age of marriage in California to 18 with no exceptions is awaiting final approval from the State Assembly and Governor Newsom.

The state Senate unanimously approved the bill, AB 1267, on Wednesday, after years of advocacy from former child brides and organizations pushing to remove California’s existing exceptions for minors, as San Diego’s CBS8 reports. The bill was approved by the House last year.

California currently allows minors to marry with a court order and written consent from a parent or guardian. The state is one of just three with no statutory minimum age. An analysis by the survivor-led nonprofit Unchained at Last estimates that roughly 35,000 marriages involving minors took place in California between 2000 and 2021, and the vast majority involved an underage girl and an adult man.

Model and former child bride Courtney Stodden, who was 16 when her parents consented to her marriage to then-51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison, has become an advocate for ending the practice. Stodden said she came to view the relationship differently after the couple divorced in 2020, prompting her to begin speaking publicly about grooming and child marriage, according to CBS8.

“This is what predators don't think about: their victims grow up,” said Stodden. “Old soul, so — you know — mature for your age... Those things are words strung together to excuse the abuse of the adults. That's it.”

Another former child bride, Christina Sutton, recently testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee about marrying her 22-year-old ex-husband at 17. She said that when a Napa judge asked whether the marriage was truly her choice, she repeated what her parents had coached her to say.

“Like most abused children, I chose lying to a judge over risking escalation at home,” Sutton told the committee.

CBS8 reports that minors also face legal restrictions that can make it difficult to leave an abusive marriage, including limits on their ability to file for divorce, retain an attorney, or remain at a domestic violence shelter without parental or guardian approval.

Unchained at Last, an organization which has been lobbying for a change in California law for nine years, says it has helped 17 states, along with Washington, DC, and two US territories, adopt similar bans. Founder Fraidy Reiss said the organization considers child marriage a human rights violation that can affect a girl's health, education, financial opportunities, and physical safety.

Previous efforts to prohibit marriage for minors in California faced opposition from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and ACLU California Action, per CBS8. In 2024, the groups joined the National Center for Youth Law in opposing a similar bill, AB 2924, arguing that a complete ban could push minors in abusive relationships further away from social services and could also affect young people who willingly wanted to marry.

Planned Parenthood is reportedly no longer opposing the legislation, leaving ACLU California Action as the only organization opposing AB 1267. One of its arguments is that lawmakers should wait for the state to finish collecting data on child marriage in California, as efforts to gather that information have uncovered problems with the state's existing records. 

CBS8 reports that California counties reported 83 marriages involving minors to the California Department of Public Health between 2019 and 2025, but records obtained directly from the counties contained dozens of discrepancies.

“If there's even one child who is getting married in California against their will, that is one child too many,” said the bill's author, Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, whose district covers parts of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

AB 1267 now returns to the Assembly for a final vote. If approved, it would go to Governor Gavin Newsom, with the new minimum marriage age taking effect January 1, 2027.

Related: California Considers Legislation Regulating Electric-Shock Gloves