'Frankly ashamed': Fight to ban child marriage in California runs into surprising opposition

In California, the age of consent when it comes to sexual relations is 18 -- but that only applies if the people involved are not married, The Los Angeles Times reported.

According to activists, that distinction creates a loophole where marriage can be used to justify statutory rape.

There is no minimum age requirement to get married in California. But if minors want to wed, they must seek approval from a parent or guardian first.

While some might assume that opposition to child marriage might be headed by conservative groups, it's actually progressives, including the politically influential ACLU and Planned Parenthood, who have enabled the practice, arguing that a complete ban on child marriage could be a slippery slope towards violating people's constitutional rights or reproductive choices, the Times reported.

Democratic state Sen. Jerry Hill told the Times that when he attempted to ban the practice in 2017, he ran into opposition from Planned Parenthood and other influential groups.

“I was amazed and appalled and frankly ashamed of California, that we had not done anything about this,” he said.

While child marriage remains legal in most of the U.S., states like Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York have moved to ban it. Now, a new measure to ban the practice until 18 without exceptions will be introduced in the California state legislature next spring.

“The US considers marriage under the age of 18 in foreign counties to be a human rights abuse,” Assemblymember Cottie Petrie Norris (D-Irvine) said. “The reality is this is happening in the dark corners. It is absolutely shocking and it’s horrifying.”

According to data reviewed by the Times, there have been 48 marriages involving minors in California since 2019 -- and those are only the ones that have been reported.

"Those numbers are significantly lower than an analysis by Unchained At Last of census data, which put the number of minor marriages in California at at least 8,789 in 2021. That number is based on respondents of the American Community Survey who said they were 15 to 17 years old and had been married within the past year. Data for younger respondents is not available," the Times' report stated.

Read the full report over at the Los Angeles Times.