SACRAMENTO, California: The California child marriage bill AB 1267 cleared the state Senate unanimously on August 19 and now returns to the Assembly.
If lawmakers give final approval, the measure would go to Governor Gavin Newsom. The bill would set California’s minimum marriage age at 18. Media personality Courtney Stodden celebrated the Senate vote in an Instagram video posted August 19.
Stodden, 31, married actor Doug Hutchison in 2011 when she was 16, and he was 51. The couple divorced in 2020. “I was 16, he was 51,” Stodden said in the video while discussing her experience with child marriage.
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Stodden has also worked with Unchained at Last, a survivor-led nonprofit that campaigns against forced and child marriage in the United States.
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She urged Californians to contact Assembly members as the bill moves back through the lower chamber. The legislation must still clear the Assembly before Newsom can consider signing it into law.
