Child Marriage is a human rights abuse.
Support a Statewide Campaign to End Child Marriage in California.
The California Coalition to End Child Marriage is convened to educate and bring awareness to current laws in California that allow for the abuse of minors. The Coalition, including all our partners, advocates for the adoption of legislation that restricts marriage to a contract between two consenting adults at a minimum age of 18. These laws are called “No Child Marriage, No Exceptions” laws.
Many states, including California, allow for marriage under the age of 18, with parental and/or judicial consent. These exceptions including parental and judicial consent have allowed for vulnerable children to be married into legal contracts that take away their rights to sovereignty and make children vulnerable to abusive marriages.
The American Medical Association has called for an end to Child Marriage stating “Child marriage is associated with higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, early pregnancies, divorce, and intimate partner violence than women married at age 21.”
Statistics Regarding Child Marriage
- Young women and girls ages 16-19 face intimate partner violence victimization rates almost three times the national average.
- The majority (70%-80%) of Child Marriages end in divorce.
- Minors who marry early are more likely to “discontinue their formal educations prematurely, earn low wages, and live in poverty.” Girls who marry early are fifty percent more likely to drop out of high school and four times less likely to graduate from college.
