COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio General Assembly is on the cusp of closing what sponsors call an “archaic” loophole in state law – an exemption to sex crime penalties for those who rape or violate their spouses – but the bill’s fate remains uncertain in the Senate.
After years of stalled efforts to close what are referred to as the spousal rape exemptions, the Ohio House last fall voted 74-1 to pass House Bill 161. Current law offers certain carveouts for five different sex crimes when the victim is “the spouse of the offender.” The legislation makes a simple change: It says husbands, like any other aggressor, can be held criminally accountable for rape, sexual battery, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, gross sexual imposition, and sexual imposition when the victim is their spouse.
An Ohio Senate committee on Wednesday held its second hearing on the bill. Several women spoke, offering personal and at times graphic testimonials of their now ex-husbands repeatedly violating them without consent. And several anti-sexual assault advocates said Ohio’s loophole sometimes precludes women from receiving emergency domestic violence protective orders, which trigger legal protections to shield them from abusers.
However, Senate leaders declined to give any clear forecast on whether the Senate will vote the bill out anytime soon. Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, didn’t answer a question about the bill’s outlook and told a reporter he hadn’t realized it was assigned to a Senate committee yet. Senate Judiciary Chairman Nathan Manning, a North Ridgeville Republican, declined to say when he’d expect a committee vote after Wednesday’s hearing.
Stories by Jake Zuckerman
Backers of the bill say Ohio is one of 11 states with a marital exception to sex crimes offenses. In the late 1970s, states began the trend of repealing such carveouts. California did so in 2021. Mississippi did so last year. The idea has festered in Ohio, dating back to at least 1985.
Under current law, no one, regardless of marital status, can engage in sexual conduct with another through use or threat of force. But husbands who live with their wives are exempt from laws that prohibit the use of drugs or other intoxicants to prevent resistance to a sexual act. For the other sex crimes, like sexual battery or sexual imposition, the law contains a simple carveout for anyone who is “the spouse of the offender.”
On Wednesday, two women addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee, offering first-person accounts of falling victim to repeated and unwanted sexual encounters with their husbands. Law enforcement, they said, did nothing in response.
“For far too long, Ohio has protected the perpetrator, and not the victim,” one woman said. “Marriage should not be a protection under the law.”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com generally do not publish the names of victims of sexual assault.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent 2016-2017 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, published in 2022, one in five women report experiencing unwanted sexual contact and sexual violence from their intimate partners.
“The continued existence of this loophole reinforces a false view that spousal sexual violence is somehow less serious than other forms of sexual violence,” said Emily Gemar of the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence. “The reality is married persons do not forfeit their right to bodily autonomy because they get married.”
The bill sponsors – now-former Democratic Rep. Jessica Miranda and Republican Rep. Brett Hillyer – passed the bill over historical and internal resistance in the House. Hillyer, in a statement after the House vote, said that a human “does not lose the right to dignity and protection under the law simply by saying ‘I do’ at the altar.” Miranda, in a previous interview, called the law “archaic” and a vestige of a chauvinistic history.
“It speaks from a different time,” she said of the spousal exemption. “And it’s our job as state lawmakers to fix those issues as we see them.”
Miranda has since left the House to take a job as the Hamilton County auditor. Hillyer lost in his primary, meaning neither sponsor will be around during the 2025-2026 legislative session if the bill doesn’t pass during the current General Assembly. But Miranda, in a call Wednesday, remained confident that this is the year the exemption finally ends.
No opposition, at least publicly, emerged around the bill. It passed with one lone no-vote, that of Xenia Republican Rep. Bill Dean, who told the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau that “I personally don’t believe that a man, if he’s married and has physical relations with his wife, that can be considered rape.”
The legislation will likely be scheduled for an opposition testimony hearing. From there, a committee vote and floor vote, if they occur, would be a decision of Senate GOP leadership.
Jeremy Pelzer contributed reporting.
Jake Zuckerman covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.