WASHINGTON — Child marriages may seem like a thing of the past, but there's a bill that passed with support from both parties currently sitting on Gov. Glen Youngkin's desk to outlaw it in Virginia.
Brigitte Combs has intimate knowledge of why this bill is still needed today.
"He was 38, I was 15, and we were married," Combs said recalling the origins of her first marriage.
Combs was actually 14 when her parents gave her away in a spiritual wedding ceremony. Not long after, she became pregnant with her firstborn child.
"I was 15, I was about 7 months pregnant, and my parents said we need to go to the courthouse and get married," she said.
It was 1984, in Texas, and at the time, few states had strict laws about child marriage.
"I was assured when I have this baby, I'm going to be married. But think about that -- without marriage that would have been statutory rape," Combs explained.
Today only 11 states have banned underage marriage outright. Virginia could be the 12th state to raise the age to 18 with no exceptions if this bill becomes law.
When Combs was 18 she says she walked out of her marriage, after being unable to get a divorce before she was of legal age. She married again, but says she didn't know what a healthy relationship looked like.
"Eventually I found myself a parent with six children, still no schooling, trying to battle through," she said.
Through all those challenges, Combs has survived, earned a GED, became a paramedic, and ran her own business. Today, she's 55 and fighting to protect kids like no one fought for her. She's testified to the Virginia Legislature and has worked with various groups including the National Organization for Women and the Tahirih Justice Center.
One survey estimates, that between 2000 and 2021 nearly 8,000 minors were married in Virginia, and 80% were underage girls married to adult men.
If the bill presented to Gov. Youngkin becomes law, Virginia would be the leader on this front in the DMV.
In D.C., a parent can give their 16-year-old child permission to marry.
"Any 16 or 17-year-old in D.C. can be brought to a courthouse and given a marriage license," Casey Swegman, the public policy director for Tahirih Justice Center, said.
In Maryland, the minimum age for marriage is 17 with judicial authorization and a residency requirement. Combs wants it to be 18, so she's speaking up because nobody should have their childhood stolen like hers.
"I'm remarried 19 years to my husband now, and everything is good," Combs said. "But I mean, it's been a long journey, and there are still things that people don't see that I struggle with."
The concern if Virginia passes this, and Maryland makes changes to their laws, is that some people may see D.C. as a destination for fast-tracking child marriages.
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