ALBANY — New York is on track to becoming the first state to set the minimum age for getting married to 17, according to the author of a measure getting broad support at the statehouse.

Minors as young as 14 years old — three years younger than the legal age of consent for sexual activity — are allowed to marry in the state.

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, said in an interview that she expects the Assembly and Senate will give final passage this month to her legislation to raise the marriage age. She said her measure is also supported by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and no organized opposition to it has arisen.

“Everybody is on board now, 100 percent,” said the veteran lawmaker.

Cuomo declared in February that child marriages should end in order to prevent young people from being forced into such unions.

Paulin’s proposal would also restrict the ability of 17-year-olds to marry. They would be required to have a court determination that the marriage was not forced or consent from their legal guardian.

Paulin said the current law shields some men who marry girls to avoid statutory rape charges that could be brought by prosecutors if the state didn’t allow minors to wed.

Her research determined that nearly 4,000 children were married in New York from 2000 to 2010.

The Pew Research Center reported last October that across the nation a total of 57,800 people ages 15 to 17 were married as of 2014. In New York, four out of every 1,000 people in that age range were married in 2014, according to Pew.

Paulin said she began delving into the problem of “child brides” in 2015 after reading an essay in the New York Times by Fraidy Reiss, the founder of a nonprofit called Unchained at Last, which seeks to rescue young women from arranged, forced marriages.

“You hurt a person for life when you allow them to get married when they are so young,” Paulin said. “A 14-year-old should be worried about her math test. She shouldn’t be worried about having to raise a family or not being allowed to go to school. It’s abusive for our culture to put a young woman in that circumstance.”

New York is one of 10 states in the nation where measures calling for an increase in the minimum age for marriage have been advanced. New Jersey would have been the first state to raise the marriage age to 18, without exceptions. But the legislation was vetoed last month by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican.

“An exclusion without exceptions would violate the cultures and traditions of some communities in New Jersey based on religious traditions,” Christie said. He called on lawmakers there to allow 16-and 17-year-olds to marry with judicial approval.

Paulin said religious groups in New York have not objected to her legislation.

One reason for that, according to Jason McGuire, executive director for New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, a Christian lobbying group, is that the measure would have the minimum age for marriage match the age for consenting to sex.

McGuire said he does oppose an unrelated measure that would revise matrimonial law by allowing people who aren’t clergy members, judges or other public officials to officiate marriages.

That bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, D-Westchester County, and Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-St. Lawrence County, is intended to give couples the flexibility to have a friend or relative preside at their weddings if the person who would officiate gets permission from the New York Department of State.

Galef has contended that the lack of a religious affiliation or connection to a political office should not preclude someone from being eligible to solemnize a marriage.

McGuire said most clergy members and many public officials who regularly officiate at marriages require couples to get pre-marital counseling before walking down the aisle. More couples would not have the benefit of such counseling if the Galef/Ritchie bill becomes law, he argued.

Joe Mahoney covers the New York Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jmahoney@cnhi.com