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Lawmaker continues push to end child marriages in Md.

April 24th, 2017 by WCBC Radio

Child marriages in Maryland are still legal, after a bill to stop them failed again. But a lawmaker has vowed to continue her fight to end child marriages in Maryland. “I’ve heard so many stories that have brought me to tears,” said Maryland Del. Vanessa Atterbeary, D-Howard County. WTOP reports Atterbeary has introduced child marriage bills in the Maryland legislature. But for the second year in a row, her bill to end child marriages in Maryland has failed. Atterbeary said she planned to introduce another bill next year to raise the marriage age in Maryland.

 

“I’m really hoping Maryland next year can do the right thing,” she said.

 
 

It might be hard to imagine that child marriages are still taking place. But this problem is not just happening in some other country — it is happening here in our own backyard.

 

Fraidy Reiss with Unchained At Last said that nearly 250,000 children as young as 12 were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010. Reiss said some of these marriages started out as statutory rape. She said child marriages put the child at greater risk of being involved with domestic abuse, dropping out of school and living in poverty.

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