State Rep. Jeff Rezabek, R-Clayton, plans to introduce a bill in early December to address Ohio’s laws that allow children of any age to marry as long as they have parental and judicial consent.
Rezabek wants to steer clear of efforts to remove a provision in state law that prohibits same-sex marriage. He said he believes legislation solely focused on underage marriage has a better chance of passing.
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Related: Should children be allowed to marry? In Ohio, thousands do
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko, D-Richmond Heights, introduced Senate Bill 198 that would raise the marriage age to 18 for both the bride and groom, allow marriage for 16 and 17-year-olds who obtain judicial and parental consent, and ban marriage for anyone under 16.
Yuko’s bill also removes the same-sex marriage ban language. The bill, introduced in September, has yet to receive a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Related: Newspaper series leads to Ohio Senate bill on child marriage
Related: Ohio lawmakers say they’ll consider changes to Ohio child marriage laws
Grant Stancliff, spokesman for EqualityOhio, said the gay rights group would eventually like the anti-same-sex marriage language wiped out at some point. “It’d be nice to have that language removed but it’s not something we’re putting a lot of effort behind because de facto, LGBTQ people are getting married in Ohio,” he said.
A 5-4 landmark ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2015 invalidated a ban against same-sex marriage approved by Ohio voters in 2004 and made gay marriage legal nationwide.
Related: U.S. Supreme Court rules to make same-sex marriage legal nationwide
National groups that advocate for an ending underage marriage say Ohio needs to outlaw any marriage before age 18. Jeanne Smoot, senior counsel for Tahirih Justice Center, said half-measures won’t meaningfully change the status quo.
“Just setting an age floor of 16, for example, will not protect the majority of minors who are married at 16 and 17, and keeping in place a bare-bones judicial approval process will continue to make it easy for the abuse and exploitation of children to slip by undetected,” she said.
By the numbers
248,000: Number of teens 17 or younger married in America between 2000 and 2010.
4,443: Number of girls 17 or younger who were married in Ohio between 2000 and 2015.
301: Number of boys 17 or younger married during that time span.
80: Percentage of marriages involving young teens that end in divorce, according to a national study.
Sources: Ohio Department of Health, Unchained at Last
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