Ohio will continue to allow child marriage after lawmakers almost passed a law that would’ve ended the practice in the state, but failed to advance it before legislators went on their summer break, outraging reform advocates.
Senate Bill 341 would have ended a loophole letting 17-year-olds marry legal adults up to four years older than them with court approval and seemed bound for passage. No one testified against it during its five public readings, and it had the support of youth advocates and the Catholic church.
