---
type: "Bill"
title: "Marriage; change minimum age from 16 to 17 and require any person who is 17 to have been emancipated"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 3 of Title 19 of the O.C.G.A., relating to marriage generally, so as to change the minimum age of marriage of a child from 16 to 17 years of age and to require any person who is 17 years of age to have been emancipated; to amend Chapter 9 of Title 19 of the O.C.G.A., relating to child custody proceedings, so as to correct a cross-reference; to amend Article 10 of Chapter 11 of Title 15 of the O.C.G.A., relating to emancipation, so as to provide for requirements for filing a petition for emancipation for petitioners who desire to enter into a marriage; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2019_20"
identifier: "HB 228"
citation: "Georgia HB 228 (2019_20)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Andrew Welch", "Debbie Buckner", "Jan Jones", "Mandi Ballinger", "Mary Oliver", "Scott Holcomb"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 16
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2019-02-08"
last_action: "2019-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/170f41a7-de26-4f72-987a-dc44a56535a6"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "c299cead41d86007ef893a51b98258562238fff329bef5c085300f938926a118"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 228 (2019_20) — Marriage; change minimum age from 16 to 17 and require any person who is 17 to have been emancipated

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 3 of Title 19 of the O.C.G.A., relating to marriage generally, so as to change the minimum age of marriage of a child from 16 to 17 years of age and to require any person who is 17 years of age to have been emancipated; to amend Chapter 9 of Title 19 of the O.C.G.A., relating to child custody proceedings, so as to correct a cross-reference; to amend Article 10 of Chapter 11 of Title 15 of the O.C.G.A., relating to emancipation, so as to provide for requirements for filing a petition for emancipation for petitioners who desire to enter into a marriage; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB 228/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/187566.pdf)
2. **LC 41 1741ER/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/180926.pdf)
3. **LC 41 1848S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/182902.pdf)
4. **LC 41 1848S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/182212.pdf)
5. **Sen ctee sub LC 41 1970S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/185229.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **158–13** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Andrew Welch — primary (person)
- Debbie Buckner — primary (person)
- Jan Jones — primary (person)
- Mandi Ballinger — primary (person)
- Mary Oliver — primary (person)
- Scott Holcomb — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-02-08** House Hopper
- **2019-02-11** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2019-02-12** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2019-02-20** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-02-26** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2019-02-26** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2019-02-27** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-21** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-22** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2019-03-28** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2019-03-28** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2019-04-02** House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub
- **2019-04-12** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-05-06** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2019-05-06** Act 187 `executive-signature`
- **2019-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/170f41a7-de26-4f72-987a-dc44a56535a6`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).