Amended bill seeks to criminalize marital rape

Article owned and originally published by WDTV 5 News on Feb. 12, 2024.

Original Article

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - The “Women’s Bill of Rights” that was introduced to the West Virginia Legislature earlier this year aims to define certain terms surrounding sex and gender, and received criticism from those who said it didn’t confer any new rights to women.

Democrats in the House of Delegates offered an amendment to the bill that would add in several new rights for women that the state previously did not include, however this amendment was stripped to only one proposal: striking a line of the code that previously specified that unwanted sexual contact between married individuals does not qualify as rape.

The previous line read: “‘Sexual contact’ means any intentional touching, either directly or through clothing, of the breasts, buttocks, anus, or any part of the sex organs of another person, or intentional touching of any part of another person’s body by the actor’s sex organs where the victim is not married to the actor and the touching is done for the purpose of gratifying the sexual desire of either party” (italics added for emphasis).

The “where the victim is not married to the actor” line is the line in question that delegates on both sides agreed should be removed.

The bill is up for passage in the House on Monday.

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