Item 29 - Child Marriage Laws - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Child Marriage Laws May 3, 2022 Page 2 2 6 5 9 school, or one of the partners is pregnant. However, there is still no minimum age for children to marry, if these conditions are met. Recent Efforts to Change the Law in California In 2018, in an attempt to set the course for banning child marriages in California, state legislature passed Senate Bill No. 273 (SB 273), which requires Family Court Services to separately interview the parties intending to marry or establish a domestic partnership and to prepare and submit to the court a written report containing recommendations for either granting or denying the parties permission to marry or establish a domestic partnership. In 2021, Assembly Bill No. 1286 (AB 1286) was introduced to require local registrars to submit a report four times per year that included information concerning issued and denied marriage certificates involving minors. Existing law requires a local registrar of marriages to submit to the State Registrar, at least annually, all information concerning marriage certificates accepted during the calendar year in which one of both of the parties were minors at the time of solemnization of the marriage, but authorizes the local registrar to dispose of information like number of certificates, age of each party, and gender of each party after only two years. This information is available upon request through the California Department of Public Health the Office of Vital Records with an estimated wait time of five to seven weeks. This law restricts local registrars from submitting such information if the registrar did not accept any marriage certificates in the same calendar year. California stopped tracking ages on marriage certificates in the 1980s, making statewide data less accessible. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, almost 5.5 of every 1,000 15-to 17-year-olds are married in California based on census data from 2014. AB 1286, however, died in January 2022. Potential Effects of Child Marriages Studies show that early marriages carry significant and long-term risk for children by increasing the risk of domestic and sexual violence, a negative impact on mental health and social life, lack of independence, and lack of education. A 2013 study by the Human Rights Watch indicated that approximately 14 million girls are married each year worldwide, and one in seven girls in developing countries is married before her 15th birthday. According to Tahirih Justice Center’s publication, “Child Marriage Poses Serious Risks to Children”, child marriage has negative physical, economic, social, and mental impacts on children, especially girls. Teen girls who marry tend to have more children earlier and more closely spaced. They are more likely to have their first child before the age of 18 and 40 percent more likely to have a second within two years of their first. Young women and girls aged 16 to 19 face intimate partner violence victimization rates at almost three times the national level. Child brides tend to come from poverty and remain in poverty. Girls who marry under the