AUGUSTA — No one under the age of 18 will be allowed to get married in Maine without parental consent once a new state law takes effect.

A bill to raise the legal age for marriage from 17 to 18 won approval in the Legislature and became law Tuesday after Gov. Janet Mills decided to neither sign it nor veto it. The bill will take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns.

The bill, LD 1185, sponsored by Rep. Laura Supica, D-Bangor, follows one passed in the previous legislative session that increased the minimum age from 16 to 17.

Supica said Maine’s previous law could be used in cases of forced marriage because it only required parental consent and not the consent of the minor, who would not have the same rights or resources as an adult.

“Too many children are forced into marriages, and while even those over 18 years of age can be forced, the difference is that when they are able to flee, they have greater access to services to help them sufficiently escape an abuser,” Supica said during a public hearing. “By raising the age requirement from 17 to 18 years old to marry, we can eliminate this danger.”

Unchained At Last, a national advocacy group led by child marriage survivors, celebrated Maine’s new law, for which it has been advocating for the last six years.

“Just when you thought nothing good happens anymore: The bill we and our allies have championed for more than six years, to ban child marriage, has officially passed into law,” the group said in a prepared statement. “Disappointingly, Gov. Janet Mills chose not to sign this important bill to ban a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives.”

Maine is now the 14th state to ban child marriage.

Aides for Mills, who signed last year’s bill raising the age to 17, did not respond to an email asking why the governor did not endorse this bill, which passed 93-52 in the House of Representatives and 23-11 in the Senate. Under Maine law, bills approved by the Legislature and not vetoed by the governor become law after 10 days.

Maine did not have any minimum age for marriage until 2020, when lawmakers passed a bill allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to get married with parental consent.