Planned Parenthood and ACLU Fighting AGAINST California Banning Child Marriages
Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union are among several leftist organizations fighting against California’s proposed ban on child marriages.
California and Mississippi are currently the only states in the nation with no minimum age requirement for marriage. The legislature will introduce a new attempt to limit marriage to people over 18 next year.
“In California, the age of sexual consent is 18 without exception, and anyone over that age engaging in intercourse with a minor can be charged with statutory rape,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “But the state’s definition of unlawful sexual activity between an adult and a minor applies only if they are not married. That creates what some advocates see as a loophole in which the act of marriage can sanction what would otherwise be a crime.”
Planned Parenthood claims that the law could create a “slippery slope” that would make it easier to ban or limit abortions for minors.
