Is Marital Rape Legal In US? Ohio Democratic Lawmaker Proposes Bill To Outlaw Marital Rape

Republican lawmakers in Ohio have not rallied round a proposed bill that would have made it illegal for husbands to drug and rape their wives, reports said Tuesday.

In order to put an end to the "spousal exemption" in Ohio, Reps. Greta Johnson (D-Akron) and Kristin Boggs (D-Columbus) introduced HB 97 on Friday. No Republicans have shown their support to co-sponsor the bill yet, the Independent reported.

This was the second bill introduced by Johnson and it addressed a loophole in Ohio's rape law that was last amended in 1986. The state rape law included spousal rape but specified that there must be some "force or threat of force" in order to warrant prosecution against the husband.

The new bill argues that spousal exemptions for offenses of marital rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, importuning and public indecency should be eliminated.

"I would argue that you could still try to prosecute under the forced rape statute, but unfortunately drugging and raping your spouse in Ohio is not illegal. I've always called rape murder of the soul. It changes people in fundamental ways. Nobody will ever be the same. The only thing [my clients] wanted was something I could never offer, which is the day before [the rape] happened," Johnson, also a former prosecutor, told the Akron Beacon Journal.

Johnson's first bill regarding the state's rape law, called the House Bill 234, was introduced in 2015. The problem of "spousal exemption" could have been done away with in Ohio because the bipartisan, bicameral Ohio Criminal Justice Recodification Committee read the proposed bill and agreed to it. However, the bill died that year as it received very little support from the Republican-controlled committee, according to New York Daily News.

"We must modernize Ohio's laws and eradicate unacceptable policy that allows someone to commit violence against their spouse. Women and men experiencing sexual violence at the hands of their spouses should not be denied the right to seek justice just because they happen to be married to the offender," Boggs said in a public statement, according to a Cleveland Scene report.

Ohio still remains among 13 other states in the United States that have not completely abolished spousal rape exemptions. Johnson also said that cases that would include just drugging a spouse do not qualify for prosecution.

"I know the speaker hasn't had a chance to review anything with this bill or the caucus. Most of this is really early in the process in terms of what might happen next," Brad Miller, a spokesman for Cliff Rosenberger, the Ohio House speaker, told the Akron Beacon Journal.