By Paige Orr, Fox23 News
OKLAHOMA CITY — A proposal to eliminate child marriage in Oklahoma is moving toward a final vote in the House of Representatives with nearly unanimous bipartisan support, despite a single vocal holdout at the State Capitol.
Senate Bill 504 would establish 18 as the firm minimum age for marriage in Oklahoma, removing current exceptions that allow 16 and 17-year-olds to wed with parental consent. While the measure passed the Senate 45-0 and cleared a House committee with a 10-1 vote, State Representative J.J. Humphrey (R-Lane) remains the sole lawmaker in opposition.
Humphrey, who has dismissed the “child marriage” label as a “lie” and “gaslighting,” maintains that the bill represents government overreach into the home. “I don’t think the government should be telling us the people what to do with our kids,” Humphrey said. “I don’t need government telling me what I can and can’t do with my kids.”
However, advocates and survivors say the “parental rights” argument ignores a dangerous reality. Fraidy Reiss, a forced marriage survivor and founder of the national non-profit Unchained At Last, told FOX 23 that parents are often the primary facilitators of these marriages.
“Oklahoma is one of only four U.S. states, that puts it as a rarity not only in the United States but around the world by not setting any minimum age for marriage,” Reiss said. “The current laws set no minimum age for marriage. You could technically marry a toddler or an infant in Oklahoma.”
Reiss noted that when a parent signs for a minor to marry, it often creates a legal trap for the child. “When someone is forced to marry, it’s almost always their own parent who is the primary facilitator. So it means escaping from home, their parents. Minors don’t have the right to leave home. You leave home before 18, you’re a runaway. You can’t get into a domestic violence shelter,” she said.
The bill’s author, Senator Warren Hamilton (R-McCurtain), argued on the Senate floor that the legislation is a necessary follow-up to previous laws that raised the age of consent. Hamilton told colleagues that the state still has a “loophole” in the law that allows the same exploitation the legislature previously sought to correct, only now it occurs “under the guise of holy matrimony.”
Reiss believes that passing the bill would finally align Oklahoma with international human rights standards. She argued that the current system effectively creates a workaround for statutory rape laws and subjects young girls to lifelong harm.
“Passing this bill would be a game changer for girls and all children in Oklahoma,” Reiss said. “We would no longer be saying our girls are up for sale, our girls are up for grabs. We would no longer be creating this workaround for our statutory rape laws. We would no longer be creating a legal avenue for the trafficking of minors under the guise of marriage. We would finally stop this human rights abuse… and we would finally be saying girls matter.”
If the bill passes the full House and is signed by Governor Kevin Stitt, the new age requirements would take effect on Nov. 1.
You can read the full bill below:
