AN ACT to amend the lawful age of marriage to sixteen years of age or older and to provide a maximum four‑year age difference for a sixteen or seventeen year‑old to marry.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 51‑2 reads as rewritten:
"§ 51‑2.  Lawful age to marry.
(a)	All unmarried persons of 18 years, or older, may lawfully marry.
(a1)	Persons over 16 years of age and under 18 years of age may marry a person no more than four years older, and the register of deeds may issue a license for the marriage, only after there has been filed with the register of deeds a certified copy of an order issued by a district court authorizing the marriage as provided in G.S. 51‑2.1, or a written consent to the marriage, said consent having been signed by the appropriate person as follows:
(1)	By a parent having full or joint legal custody of the underage party; or
(2)	By a person, agency, or institution having legal custody or serving as a guardian of the underage party.
Such written consent shall not be required for an emancipated minor if a certificate of emancipation issued pursuant to Article 35 of Chapter 7B of the General Statutes or a certified copy of a final decree or certificate of emancipation from this or any other jurisdiction is filed with the register of deeds.
	
(b1)	It shall be unlawful for any person under 16 years of age to marry.
(c)	When a license to marry is procured by any person under 18 years of age by fraud or misrepresentation, a parent of the underage party, a person, agency, or institution having legal custody or serving as a guardian of the underage party, or a guardian ad litem appointed to represent the underage party pursuant to G.S. 51‑2.1(b) is a proper party to bring an action to annul the marriage."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 51‑2.1 reads as rewritten:
"§ 51‑2.1.  Marriage of certain underage parties.
(a)	A district court judge may issue an order authorizing a marriage between a person over 16 years of age and under 18 years of age, to a person no more than four years older under this section only upon finding as fact and concluding as a matter of law that the underage party is capable of assuming the responsibilities of marriage and the marriage will serve the best interest of the underage party. In determining whether the marriage will serve the best interest of an underage party, the district court shall consider the following:
(1)	The opinion of the parents of the underage party as to whether the marriage serves the best interest of the underage party.
(2)	The opinion of any person, agency, or institution having legal custody or serving as a guardian of the underage party as to whether the marriage serves the best interest of the underage party.
(3)	The opinion of the guardian ad litem appointed to represent the best interest of the underage party pursuant to G.S. 51‑2.1(b) as to whether the marriage serves the best interest of the underage party.
(4)	The relationship between the underage party and the parents of the underage party, as well as the relationship between the underage party and any person having legal custody or serving as a guardian of the underage party.
(5)	Any evidence that it would find useful in making its determination.
There shall be a rebuttable presumption that the marriage will not serve the best interest of the underage party when all living parents of the underage party oppose the marriage. The fact that the female is pregnant, or has given birth to a child, alone does not establish that the best interest of the underage party will be served by the marriage.
…."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 51‑3 reads as rewritten:
"§ 51‑3.  Want of capacity; void and voidable marriages.
All marriages between any two persons nearer of kin than first cousins, or between double first cousins, or between a male person under 16 years of age and any female, or between a female person under 16 years of age and any male, or between persons either of whom has a husband or wife living at the time of such marriage, or between persons either of whom is at the time physically impotent, or between persons either of whom is at the time incapable of contracting from want of will or understanding, shall be void. No marriage followed by cohabitation and the birth of issue shall be declared void after the death of either of the parties for any of the causes stated in this section except for bigamy. A marriage contracted under a representation and belief that the female partner to the marriage is pregnant, followed by the separation of the parties within 45 days of the marriage which separation has been continuous for a period of one year, shall be voidable unless a child shall have been born to the parties within 10 lunar months of the date of separation."
SECTION 4.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to marriage licenses pending or issued on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 18th day of August, 2021.

	s/	 Phil Berger
	 President Pro Tempore of the Senate

	s/	 Tim Moore
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	s/	 Roy Cooper
	 Governor

Approved 1:13 p.m. this 26th day of August, 2021