The very progressive state where child marriage is LEGAL - and local ACLU chapter claims it would be 'discriminatory' to ban it

California is one of four states that does not set a minimum age requirement for marital unions.

Instead, a minor only needs to get the permission of a parent or guardian and approval from a judge to obtain a marriage license - a concept that has spurred some controversy.

New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Mississippi are the only other states to allow people of any age marry with the permission of a judge and a parent - but the Golden State is the first to balk at it.      

AB 2924, which would strike existing legal language that allows provisions for marriage under 18, was introduced in the local legislature in February.

However, it has already been met with pushback - from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Northern California, ACLU California Action and the National Center for Youth Law.

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The coalition argues such a guidance would drive abusive relationships underground, while limit the rights of minors who willingly want to marry - a stance that horrifies child marriage survivors like Sara Tasneem.

'At fifteen, my father forced me to marry a man who was a complete stranger and almost twice my age,' the El Sobrante resident, now 43, writes on her website.

'It took me seven years to leave this abusive marriage behind. 

'I am fighting to change laws that allow child marriage in the United States along with other survivors who know all too well about the human rights abuse that is forced child marriage.'

In an interview with The Mercury News, she recalled how she was trapped in the archaic arranged union until she was 23.

During that span, she had two now-grown kids, and was finally able to initiate divorce proceedings toward the tail-end.

To do so, she was forced to leave her kids with their father for a period, she said -  describing how she figured out the next steps.

Soon enough, she was able to get them back, and now uses her experience to get others who suffered and are suffering similar ordeals on her side.

'[A child marrying an adult] in and of itself is abusive because one person is holding power over another,' she told the Bay Area newspaper Monday.

She explained how she had already testified about her experience with child marriage in Sacramento in support of AB 2924 earlier this year,  and what she views as the primary obstacle in her quest thus far.

'To me, it’s Planned Parenthood that’s standing in the way,' she declared. 'I just don’t understand - we really should be on the same side in this situation.'

Pointing out the irony of such an institution taking issue with a guidance designed to protect, more often than not, young mother.

Tasneem described how she is one of several advocates who has met with Planned Parenthood multiple times about the bill, which was introduced by Assembly Member Cottie Petrie-Norris of Orange County.

The group, along with the local ACLU chapter and the National Center for Youth Law, have refused to back down, she said.

'They have kind of seemed to dig their heels in a little bit and made this a little bit more of a political issue versus looking at this as an actual issue that affects children,' she explained.

Their refusal saw Petrie-Norris, a Democrat, cancel a judiciary committee designed to pass AB 2924.

The bill at that point was withdrawn - a development many at the time blamed on Assembly Member Ash Kalra, the chair of the judiciary committee, due to his support of several amendments survivors like Tasneem take issue with.

They include banning marriage under the age of 16 but allowing the court make certain exceptions for some 16- and 17-year-olds and emancipated minors, Petrie-Norris said - prospects that horrify Tasneem, and stopped Petrie-Norris in her tracks.

'I have tremendous respect for the lived experience of the survivors and advocates who I was working with on this bill,' she said at the time, explaining who she decided to pause the bill because the survivors she was working with were adamant there should be no exceptions.

'After considering our options for this legislative session, I decided to pause the bill rather than move forward with a compromise proposal that they do not support.'

The bill seemingly died there,  but Tasneem and other survivors continue to fight back with protests at the statehouse.

New legislation could also soon be on the way, Tasneem said - one that, like Petrie-Norris's. would remove the ability of minors to marry at all, setting the minimum age to 18 with no exceptions. 

Only 13 states, including New York, Pennsylvania, and all of New England, have passed such stipulations. All other states have a minimum marriage age of either 16 or 17, with Hawaii and Kansas having an especially low limit of 15.   

The bashed bill, meanwhile, was seemingly a popular one - with 20 co-authors across parties and houses, after work started on it way back in 2021, she said. 

The federal government, meanwhile, signed onto a United Nations pledge to end child marriage by 2030, but states have been slow to produce bills like ones seen in the Northeast and Washington state that have made 18 the mandatory age.

A 2021 study by Unchained at Last, a non-profit that campaigns to end young marriages, suggested the issue is an important one, with some 300,000 minors were legally married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018. 

Many of them were from California, with more than 8,000 minors in California between 15 and 17 years old becoming married in 2021 than 2021, Unchained at Last found upon perusing the US Census's American Community Survey.

in 2022, that number rose to more than 9,000, Unchained at Last said - adding how about 86 percent of these marriages involved underage girls wedding grown men.

In defiance, survivors and Unchained at Last hosted a 'chain-in' protest outside Kalra's San Jose office on July 18, one where woman donned wedding gowns with chains around their wrists, to symbolize the prisons they say these marriages create.

'I want to protect the people with the smallest voice in this process, and that’s the minor,' Tasneem said days later. 'Nobody looks out for them - not their parents, not the law, not lawyers, not politicians. Nobody.'

She plans to continue such protests at the statehouse in Sacramento, in hopes someone will, one day, bring forth a similar bill.