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Senate advances bill to raise legal marriage age to 18
Summary
Senators adopted and perfected a substitute for Senate Bill 66, which would raise the age of marriage in Missouri to 18 for all parties; sponsors cited child-welfare concerns and existing state rankings on child marriage.
Senators adopted a Senate substitute for Senate Bill 66 on the Senate floor and declared the measure perfected and ordered printed. The bill would raise the minimum age of marriage in Missouri to 18 for all parties, removing the current allowance for 16- and 17-year-olds to marry with parental consent.
The sponsor, identified in the floor record as the senator from the 20 Fourth, said the change is “imperative to the health and welfare of children, particularly young girls in the state of Missouri” and argued that child marriage increases risks of “mental and physical health issues, intimate partner abuse, social isolation, and poverty.” On the floor the sponsor declared, “Child marriage is the legalization of child ****.” The sponsor also thanked former legislators who worked on the issue in prior sessions.
During floor remarks, another senator described how conversations and personal experience led him to support the change and said he had become convinced the policy needed updating. The sponsor took questions and then closed debate; the presiding officer announced that “the ayes do have it,” and the substitute was declared perfected and printed for the record.
The transcript does not include a roll-call tally for the final voice vote. The floor discussion focused on child welfare and moral arguments supporting the change; no fiscal analysis or effective-date language was included in the floor remarks.
