NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A New Mexico House committee signed off on a bill that updates the state’s marriage laws to ban all child marriages. House Bill 242 would change the law so that a New Mexico marriage license cannot be issued to anyone under the age of 18.
Under current laws, a 16-year-old or 17-year-old can get a marriage license in New Mexico as long as they have written consent from their parents. The committee heard from several county-level officials in support of the bill.
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“Child marriage, specifically, overwhelmingly affects young children who are girls and puts these children at risk of sexual, physical, psychological, and financial abuse, and has the potential to increase the rate of psychiatric disorders for women who have married young, compared to those who married as adults,” says Amber Mayhall, Otero County’s Healthcare Services director.
Alongside the age change, the bill increases the fees to obtain a license from $25 to $40, and it adds provisions that allow service men and women who are deployed or assigned outside of the state to get married virtually.