Virginia, Maryland weigh raising marriage age to 18 to combat coercion, abuse

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Virginia, Maryland weigh raising marriage age to 18 to combat coercion, abuse
In most of those cases, the minor was a female and often shockingly young. Four of the brides were 13 years old, 24 brides were 14, and more than 170 others were 15.

They can’t legally vote, drink alcohol or smoke a cigarette, but thousands of underage Virginians, most of them girls, have been pressured into marriage over the last decade. Now there’s a move afoot in the General Assembly to try to head off the disturbing trend by raising the age of consent for marriage to at least…