Advocates seek change to Ohio’s teen marriage laws

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s marriage laws allowing underage teens to marry are too liberal and create potential for exploiting girls, said an advocate for an organization that’s called for ending child marriage.

Ohio requires teen girls to be at least 16 and males to be at least 18 before they can legally marry but allows for younger pregnant girls to wed with the permission of parents and juvenile courts, the Dayton Daily News has reported .

The newspaper found that more than 4,400 girls age 17 or younger were married in Ohio between 2000 and 2015, including 59 who were 15 or younger. Three were just 14.

The executive director of a national nonprofit advocating for ending child marriage says Ohio’s law creates situations comparable to Yemen, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

“Shame on Ohio for having 16th-century laws still on the book,” Fraidy Reiss of Unchained At Last said.

People younger than 18 are allowed to marry in all 50 states, but some states, including Connecticut, New York and Texas, have adopted laws increasing the minimum age.

Ohio State Rep. Jeff Rezabek, a Republican from Clayton who practices family and juvenile law, said underage girls marrying much older men raises questions about why judges and parents weren’t pursuing other remedies in court. While the age of consent in Ohio is 16, an adult could be charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor for having sex with someone between the ages of 13 and 15.

The newspaper’s story highlighted a case of a pregnant Ohio 14-year-old who married a 48-year-old man in 2002. They remain married 15 years later and have three children.

The now-retired judge who permitted the marriage between Tessi and Richard Siders in southern Ohio’s Gallia County acknowledged that prosecutors and children’s protective services weren’t involved.

Montgomery County Juvenile Judge Anthony Capizzi said law enforcement should have been alerted when that case came before the court.

Tessi Siders, now 29, said in an interview cthat she doesn’t regret having married at such a young age but probably wouldn’t allow her children to do so.