HB161 would eliminate the spousal exception for rape as a criminal sex offense, allowing a person to be convicted of rape involving their spouse, regardless of whether their spouse lives with them.
The House passed HB161 on November 29, 2023, by a vote of 75 to 1. We have assigned minuses to the yeas because rape and other criminal acts of sexual immorality (e.g., incest and sodomy), by definition, can only occur apart from the martial covenant. Rather than attempt to criminalize sexual relations between spouses and undermine the family, Ohio should perform its constitutional duty to affirm and support the institution of marriage, whereby a husband and wife, based on mutual consent and contract, may enjoy their conjugal rights as part of a life-long commitment and one-flesh union. God—not the State—ordained marriage as the foundation of family government, built on the concept of complementary manhood and womanhood. Under the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment, the head of each household retains its natural and lawful authority to regulate self-governing behavior in the home.