Wednesday, May. 28, 2025
Did Maine lack a legal minimum age for marriage prior to 2020?
Until 2020, Maine had no statutory minimum age for marriage.
Previously, the state allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to marry with parental consent; children under 16 required both parental consent and judicial approval.
In January 2020, Maine passed legislation to establish a minimum marriage age of 16. Written consent from a parent or guardian was required for 16- and 17-year-olds to wed.
In 2023, the Legislature raised the minimum age to 17. Parental consent was still required for 17-year-olds to marry.
In May 2025, Maine became the 14th state to ban marriage for anyone under 18, eliminating all exceptions.
The U.S. Constitution does not mention the issue of child marriage, which allows states to set their own minimum ages. The Child Marriage Prevention Act, which aims at deterring marriage for minors without banning it outright, was introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2024 but has not been passed in either chamber of Congress.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- LD 545, which set Maine’s minimum marriage age at 16 in 2020.
- LD 443, which raised Maine’s marriage age to 17 in 2023.
- LD 1185, which raised Maine’s marriage age to 18 in May.
- Advocacy group Unchained At Last’s tracking of states that have banned marriage for minors.
- The Child Marriage Prevention Act.
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