Survivors of forced and underage marriages stood alongside advocates at a Columbus news conference Wednesday, calling on Ohio lawmakers to finally bar anyone under 18 from tying the knot. Their focus was Senate Bill 341, a bipartisan plan that would scrap Ohio's narrow carve-outs and set a clear-cut minimum marriage age of 18 across the state. Supporters said the shift would close a legal loophole that critics argue leaves minors exposed to abuse and stuck in legal limbo.
On the microphone were survivors and leaders from the national group Unchained At Last, who described how marrying before adulthood can strip young people of basic legal protections, as reported by Cleveland.com. Fraidy Reiss, the organization’s founder and a survivor herself, told the crowd that "marriage before 18 destroys almost every aspect of a girl's life." Another survivor, Stephanie Lowry, recounted being forced into marriage just days after her 16th birthday. Advocates at the event warned that married minors often struggle to leave abusive homes, get into adult domestic-violence shelters, or even bring their own legal claims in court.
What Senate Bill 341 Would Do
Senate Bill 341 would repeal the portion of the Ohio Revised Code that still lets 17-year-olds marry with juvenile-court consent and replace it with a straightforward rule that only adults 18 and older may marry, according to the bill text on the Ohio Legislature’s website. The bill is sponsored by Sen. William P. DeMora and Sen. Louis W. Blessing III and was filed in the 136th General Assembly.
Under a law enacted in 2019, a 17-year-old in Ohio may still marry, but only if a juvenile court grants consent, the would-be spouses complete court-ordered premarital counseling, a 14-day waiting period passes, and the age gap between the parties is no more than four years, per the Ohio Revised Code. SB 341 would wipe out that remaining exception.
By the numbers
Nationally, a study by Unchained At Last found that more than 314,000 minors were legally married in the United States between 2000 and 2021, with the overwhelming majority being girls married to adult men. Advocates cite that data as fuel for a broader push to tighten state laws, noting that states with an 18-and-up minimum and no exceptions have seen child marriages fall sharply.
Ohio figures and reaction
Advocates pointed to Ohio’s own records, which, according to Cleveland.com, show that 5,075 minors were married in the state between 2000 and 2024, based on Ohio Department of Health data analyzed by a nonprofit. Senate President Rob McColley told reporters he was not familiar with the specific anti-child-marriage bill but said he expected lawmakers would likely pass it, according to the outlet’s coverage. The bill’s sponsors have told colleagues they are working alongside national advocates and survivors to guide the measure through the committee process.
What comes next
SB 341 was introduced in January and is currently waiting for its first committee move. Sponsors say they will push for hearings this spring. Backers of the bill plan to bring survivor testimony and hard numbers into those hearings in an effort to build momentum for a floor vote, according to reporting on the legislation’s introduction by Spectrum News 1.
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