The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday passed a bill banning marriage for anyone under age 18.

“It really gives people sociologically and socioeconomically and public health-wise a much better chance of living a full life, a healthy life, and probably a more prosperous life,” said Sen. Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester, the prime sponsor of the bill, S.2294, in an interview before the vote.

The bill passed the Senate unanimously, 39-0. It will now go to the House for consideration.

The bill would prohibit a minister or magistrate from solemnizing a marriage of anyone under age 18. A clerk or registrar would be required to see proof of age before issuing a marriage certificate.

Today, teenagers under 18 can get married in Massachusetts if they receive approval from a parent and a judge.

According to data from the Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, 1,231 youth under 18 were married in Massachusetts between the years 2000 and 2016. Of those, 84% were teenage girls married to adult men.

Most of the girls were 16 and 17, but 57 of them were under age 16, which means under state law, they were not even old enough to consent to sex. The youngest was 14.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Chandler referred to a woman named Tammy Monteiro who testified before a legislative committee earlier this year. Monteiro said she was 16 when a judge allowed her to marry a 25-year-old man. Her mother let her leave high school, and she endured years of abuse and had multiple children before she escaped.

“Let me be clear: Minors who marry an adult are victims of an inappropriate balance of power,” Chandler said.

International statistics show that teenage girls who get married are at high risk of domestic violence. Young mothers have high rates of complications and death from childbirth.

Even within the U.S., a study by the Cambridge-based National Bureau of Economic Research found that a woman who marries as a teen is more likely to live in poverty when she is older. Other studies have shown that women who marry as teenagers are more likely to get divorced, to drop out of school, to have psychiatric and physical health problems and to have more children at a younger age.

“What studies conclusively show is marriage before 18 in the U.S. creates lifelong repercussions,” said Fraidy Reiss, founder and executive director of Unchained at Last, a New Jersey nonprofit that works to end forced and child marriages.

Supporters of the bill say minors who are married also have fewer resources available to them to escape an abusive relationship. For example, they cannot rent a home, open a checking account, enter an adult domestic violence shelter or file for divorce by themselves. A child who is married is no longer eligible for state services from the Department of Children and Families.

Reiss said it is not just a question of whether a 17-year-old is mature enough to make a decision. “This is about legal capacity,” she said. “We ask children to wait to enter into almost every other contract in Massachusetts. Why aren’t we asking them to wait to enter into a serious contract that has possibly lifelong ramifications?”

Massachusetts Child Advocate Maria Mossaides, a state government appointee tasked with protecting children, supports the bill.

“This bill will protect young people — primarily young women — from undue influence, and will permit them the opportunity to prepare for a healthy adulthood,” Mossaides said in a statement.

Both Chandler and Reiss said current law requiring parental and judicial approval is not an adequate safeguard. Often, they say, parents are the ones forcing children into marriage, for reasons of religion, custom, pregnancy or money. Reiss said judges generally “rubber stamp” these arrangements.

The Boston Globe reported in 2016 that between 2010 and 2014, judges approved 92% of marriage petitions for minors.

Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Boston, Senate chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, said during the Senate debate that she has heard people questioning whether child marriage exists in Massachusetts, and whether it should be allowed for certain cases — such as a pregnant teenager who wants to marry a steady boyfriend. Chang-Diaz said even in those cases, around three-quarters of marriages involving teen mothers end in divorce.

“Child marriage inhibits success and financial stability as an adult, in turn further compounding their vulnerability to violence and abuse,” Chang-Diaz said.

Reiss said there is little down side to requiring a 17-year-old to wait a few more months to get married.

Delaware and New Jersey became the first states to ban child marriage in 2018. Several other states are considering similar bills.

The Massachusetts bill was first introduced in 2017. Thursday’s vote marked the first time it passed either the House or the Senate.

A similar bill, H.1478, was filed in the House by House chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities Kay Khan, D-Newton, with 86 cosponsors. That bill is pending in the Judiciary Committee and has not yet had a hearing.

Khan said she hopes a hearing could be scheduled for the fall, and the House could take up the bill before the legislative session ends next summer.

“This is about protecting young women and making sure that they are able to get on with their lives in a more productive way ... to protect them in terms of safety,” Khan said.