The child bride leading the charge to end Californias shameful underage marriage law

California could finally slam the door on child marriage as lawmakers weigh a bill that would outlaw the controversial practice once and for all.Assembly Bill 1267 is headed to a Senate floor vote and would raise the state’s minimum marriage age to 18 with no exceptions.Despite its progressive reputation, California remains one of 33 states that still allow minors to marry — and one of only three with no minimum age requirement on the books.Leading the push is former child bride Courtney Stodden — who was just 16 when they married then-51-year-old actor Doug Hutchison with their parents’ consent, and has since become one of the nation’s most outspoken advocates for ending child marriage.“My dad walked me down the aisle to an actual pedophile, an actual predator,” Stodden told CBS8.

“And I was never special… He took my innocence.He took my childhood.

He took everything, really.”The couple divorced in 2020.Stodden, who said she once believed the relationship was love, now describes it as grooming.“This is what predators don’t think about: their victims grow up,” Stodden said.

“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.”Because minors cannot legally enter contracts without parental consent, Stodden’s mother approved the marriage on her behalf.California law currently requires a judge to interview a minor and a parent or guardian before approving a marriage license in an effort to identify coercion.Former child bride Christina Sutton said those safeguards did not protect her.Sutton testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that when a Napa judge asked whether marrying her 22-year-old boyfriend at age 17 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.

“I repeated exactly what my parents had ...