Ohio May Soon Jump On Hot Trend Of Making It Illegal To Rape Your Spouse!
Only several decades later than most other states!
Content Note: Sexual assault, domestic violence and rape.
On Wednesday, the Ohio Senate unanimously passed a bill that will make it officially illegal to rape one’s spouse, even if you live together. Because for some reason, up until now, it was still technically legal as long as the couple was still cohabitating — which apparently even Ohio Republicans were able to see was a pretty creepy loophole to have in a marital rape law.
The bill also removes the “spousal exception” for sexual battery and other sex crimes, which also seems like a thing that should have been illegal all along. Another nice thing is that people will now be allowed to testify against their spouses in these cases, which one imagines would be necessary to prosecute them.
I’m sorry if any of this sounds flip, but I really am just trying to pull my jaw up off the floor here as I try to imagine the thought process that went into carving out those exceptions in the first place. I would have liked to imagine it was some kind of oversight, somehow, but no — that is exactly how they wrote it.
The bill was last amended in April of last year:
(A)(1) No person shall engage in sexual conduct with another who is not the spouse of the offender or who is the spouse of the offender but is living separate and apart from the offender, when any of the following applies:
(a) For the purpose of preventing resistance, the offender substantially impairs the other person's judgment or control by administering any drug, intoxicant, or controlled substance to the other person surreptitiously or by force, threat of force, or deception.
(b) The other person is less than thirteen years of age, whether or not the offender knows the age of the other person.
(c) The other person's ability to resist or consent is substantially impaired because of a mental or physical condition or because of advanced age, and the offender knows or has reasonable cause to believe that the other person's ability to resist or consent is substantially impaired because of a mental or physical condition or because of advanced age.
(2) No person shall engage in sexual conduct with another when the offender purposely compels the other person to submit by force or threat of force.
Thankfully, given subsection (b), Ohio does not let anyone under the age of 17 get married. This is good both for the children and the sanctity of my wall, which I may otherwise have had to put a hole in.
The current sexual battery law is equally horrifying.
As much as I realize that laws barring marital rape are a relatively recent development, it is still just very hard to wrap one’s mind around anyone coming to the conclusion that “It’s bad to drug someone and then rape them, unless you are married to them and living in the same house, in which case that seems fine. Let’s put in a specific exemption for that!”
The issue has actually been debated for decades in the Ohio Legislature, ever since the state first outlawed some forms of marital rape. Those in opposition to the law feared that evil soon-to-be ex-wives could lie and say they had been raped in order to get a better deal in divorce proceedings. This overlooks the fact that it is, in fact, possible to lie about literally anything, including many other things that might give one an advantage in divorce proceedings. If we base our laws on “Well, what if people lie?” then almost nothing would be illegal.
There was even a single vote against the bill when it passed the House — Rep. Bill Dean, R-Xenia, said he was concerned that it could "be used as a wedge between husband and wife."
And the rape and/or sexual battery wouldn’t? Really?
Disturbingly, Ohio is not the last state with such laws on the books. There are still 11 other states that haven’t totally eliminated their own disturbing spousal exceptions.
The bill is headed to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s desk to be signed, and one hopes that he does the right thing and signs it immediately, because no one should have to have to fear that one day their spouse will take advantage of this law.
I was a lifelong Democrat in this and all infinite parallel universes but since the woke mob outlawed drugging and sexually assaulting my wife I realize my party has left me and I must vote third party.
Supreme Court argument on Trump's claim of "absolute immunity"
From The NY Times:
"Justice Thomas cites “Operation Mongoose” in asking why no ex-presidents have been charged in the past. That is an odd example. President John F. Kennedy ordered Operation Mongoose — a covert operation in Cuba. Of course, Kennedy never had an opportunity to be an ex-president."
Jack Smith's attorney, Michael Dreeben, was heard muttering under his breath, "What a maroon!"