California is currently one of only three states in the country — alongside Mississippi and New Mexico — that sets no minimum age at all for marriage, allowing a child of any age to be legally wed as long as a parent or guardian signs off. A bill designed to close that loophole for good just cleared a major hurdle in Sacramento, passing the state Senate on a unanimous 38-0 vote this past Wednesday.

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[–] 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's good that it's closed, but I wonder how much this loophole was actually used.

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  • [–] 54 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    mentioned in the article:

    An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the advocacy organization Unchained At Last estimated that roughly 35,000 minors were married in California between 2000 and 2021, with the vast majority of those cases involving underage girls wed to adult men, the same report notes.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 day ago* (1 child)
  • Child marriage is still legal in 33 states, and I'll let you guess as to those states' political leanings.

    If you guessed Republican, the party whose elected representatives boast a higher rate of sex crimes against children than the trans people they tell us to hate... congrats!

    The survivor website Unchained At Last tells us:

    Between 2000 and 2021, nearly 315,000 children were legally entered into marriage across the U.S. The vast majority [86%] were girls wed to adult men.

    9 out of the 10 states with the highest teen pregnancy rates are also, you guessed it...

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