Ohio Republicans stall ban on child marriage

Ohio Republican leadership is blocking a vote on a bill that would end child marriage in the state.

For the past year, former child brides like Stephanie Lowry have been protesting and speaking at the Statehouse, urging lawmakers to end the practice.

"I'm still here, and I'm still sharing to make sure no other minor gets trapped in these legal loopholes," Lowry said Tuesday.

Before 2019, Ohio had no minimum age to get married. Now, seventeen-year-olds can still marry someone up to four years older, as long as a court signs off on it.

Since 2000, more than 5,000 kids have been married as minors, Unchained At Last, an organization dedicated to ending underage marriage, reported using Ohio Department of Health data. Unchained Founder Fraidy Reiss, who was forced to marry a stranger at 19, said 50 17-year-olds were married between 2020 and 2024, according to ODH.

Lowrys story starts at fifteen, when she got pregnant. At 16, she said her mom forced her to marry the 19-year-old man who impregnated her. He also abused her, she said.

"At 17, I found myself homeless with a nine-month-old baby, unable to get housing or even file for divorce until I turned 18," Lowry said.

She was still a child in the eyes of the law. She was dependent on her adult husband, who had become her guardian.

State Sens. Bill Blessing (R-Colerain Township) and Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) introduced S.B. 341 in February, which would only allow adults to marry.

"The fact that we haven't done it yet is just another black mark on the state of Ohio," DeMora said.

She and other survivors have been protesting and fighting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to ban the practice.

Despite having no public opposition, Republican leaders have stalled the bill.

RELATED: Ohio GOP leaders differ on whether child marriage should be a 'debate'

"I would vote yes, but I also have to make sure that we have the support, and we're going to talk about it in caucus and see where it lands," Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said Tuesday.

The bill passed unanimously out of committee, but McColley won't bring it to a full floor vote. Reporters asked twice more to get him to comment further, but he wouldn't.

Blessing said there is enough support to pass it.

"My argument would be: simply just call for a vote and let people vote your conscience on this," the Republican said.

Some religious activists have argued that some child marriages should be allowed in the case of a teen pregnancy or for groups who have different cultural norms. According to some lawmakers, this is why the bill has been stalled. Several Republican senators have privately said they don't want to get involved in people's home lives.

"They want to dictate what a woman could do with their own bodily stuff if they got pregnant, but it's unconscionable if we determine that 18-year-olds should be married or not," DeMora said.

Even if the Senate passes the bill, it may have trouble in the House.

"Do you think that there should be this huge debate on making it so that only 18 and up can get married?" I asked House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) in the summer. "Do you think there's merit to people who say that you can be 17 and marry an adult?"

"Yeah, well, I do think there should be a debate," Huffman then responded.

The reason it's in the law is because of previous cultural sentiments from before women had economic freedom.

"I think certainly things have changed in the last 150 years and how society operates and sees itself," Huffman said.

Fifteen-year-olds used to be able to marry adults because that was the "way things were," he said.

While McColley and his leadership team are currently the roadblock, DeMora says he will push him to go with his gut. Not every bill needs unanimous support on the Republican side, he added.

"The state is actively legitimizing abuse," Lowry said.

If the bill doesn't pass this year, supporters say they will try again in January.

Follow Statehouse and Columbus bureau reporter Morgan Trau on X, Instagram and Facebook. Email her at [email protected].