Before the 1960s, it was really hard to get a divorce in America.
Usually, the only way to do this was to convince a judge that your spouse had committed some type of wrongdoing, such as adultery, abandonment, or “cruelty” (ie, abuse). That can be difficult: “Even if you can prove you were hurt, that doesn’t mean it rose to the level of cruelty that justifies a divorce,” says Marcia ZugProfessor of Family Law at the University of South Carolina.
Then came a revolution: in 1969, then-Gov. Signed by Ronald Reagan of California (who was himself divorced). The country’s first no-fault divorce law, allows people to end their marriages without having to prove they were wronged. The move was a recognition that “people were going to get out of marriage,” Zug said, and gave them a way to do without it resort to subterfuge. Similar laws soon swept the country, and rate Domestic violence and spousal homicide As people – especially women – gain more freedom to leave dangerous situations, they begin to decline.
Today, however, a counter-revolution is brewing: Conservative commentator And Legislators Calling for an end to no-fault divorce, arguing that it harmed men and even destroyed the fabric of society. Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Devers, for example, presented a bill to ban his state’s version of no-fault divorce in January. The Texas Republican Party added a call to end the practice 2022 platform (The board is preserved 2024 version) Federal lawmakers such as Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) and House Speaker Mike JohnsonBesides, former housing and urban development secretary Ben CarsonAdvocated tightening of divorce laws.
If this seems preposterous or easily dismissed as political posturing — surely Republicans don’t want to turn back the marriage law clock more than 50 years — it’s worth looking back at what rhetorical attacks on abortion, birth control and IVF do. become reality
And that will cause huge problems, especially for those who are experiencing abuse. “Any barrier to separation is a really big challenge for survivors,” said Marius Durrani, vice president of policy at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. “What it really ends up doing is prolonging their forced entanglement with an abusive partner.”
In view of this Dobbs The decision, divorce, is one of many areas of family law that conservative policymakers see an opportunity to rewrite. “We’ve gotten to the point now where things that weren’t on the table are on the table,” Zug said. “Fringe ideas are becoming much more mainstream.”
Republicans in several states are looking at divorce restrictions
Pushback against no-fault divorce goes back decades. Three states passed in the 1990s and early 2000s Contract Marriage ActAllows couples to opt in Sign a contract Allowing divorce only in circumstances such as abuse or abandonment. Some supporters of the law wanted it to send a broader anti-divorce message, The Maryland Daily Record reported this In 2001. Speaker Johnson, then a Louisiana lawyer, was an early adopter of covenant marriages, entering one with his wife Kelly in 1999.
More recently, high-profile conservative commentators have taken up the anti-divorce cause. Last year, popular right-wing podcaster Steven Crowder announced his own reluctant separation. “My then-wife decided she didn’t want to be married anymore,” he complained, “and that’s totally allowed in the state of Texas.”
That may change. as As noted by Tessa Stewart in Rolling Stone, the Texas Republican Party controls both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s office, and could likely make its platform — which calls for the state legislature to “repeal unilateral no-fault divorce laws” — a reality if it chooses. The Louisiana and Nebraska Republican parties have also considered or adopted similar language.
and Ben Carson, who served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Donald Trump floated as a potential VP pickwrote His latest book that “in the interests of the family, we should enact legislation to eliminate or radically reduce the incidence of no-fault divorce.”
Finalizing a no-fault divorce has major consequences
Opponents of no-fault divorce argue that it hurts the family and American culture. Making divorce too easy leads to “social upheaval, unbridled dishonesty, lawlessness, violence against women, war against men and the expendability of children.” Devers wrote last year In The American Reformer, a Christian publication. “To devalue marriage is to devalue the family and destroy the foundation of a thriving society.”
It is worth noting that although no-fault laws initially led to an increase in divorce, the rate then began to decline and reached a 50-year low in 2019. CNN reported. But today, finalizing a no-fault divorce can cause enormous financial, logistical and emotional stress for people seeking to end their marriages, experts say. Proving fault requires a trial, which many divorcing couples avoid today, said Kristen Marinacchio, a New Jersey-based family law attorney. Divorce proceedings are time-consuming and expensive, putting the less-moneyed partner at an immediate disadvantage. Taking the stand against an ex-partner can be “really, really hurtful,” Marinaccio says.
There is no guarantee that judges will always judge cases fairly. In the days of fault-based divorce, courts were often unwilling to interfere in marriages even in cases of abuse, Zug says.
No-fault divorce can be easier for children, who don’t have to face each other’s parents. Experts say. Research suggests that allowing such divorce increases marriage and even women’s power Reduced female suicide rates. A return to the old ways would turn back the clock on this progress, scholars say.
“We know what happens when people can’t get out of very unhappy marriages,” Zug said. “Domestic abuse and spousal homicide are high.”
It’s unlikely that blue states will ban no-fault divorce, Marinaccio said, but if red states do, their residents will be stuck. Divorce laws typically include residency requirements, which would make it harder for people to cross state lines as they sometimes do now to get an abortion. “Your state is the only access you have to divorce,” Marinaccio said.
Divorce is extremely common – more than 670,000 American couples split up In 2022 alone. Any rollback to no-fault divorce would be politically unpopular, even in red states (of which there are some High divorce rate than the national average).
But perhaps on the contrary they were encouraged by the victory Roe v. WadeSocial conservatives have pursued other populist causes in recent months, from birth control IVF. The drive to increase restrictions on divorce is part of the same movement, Zug said — an effort to reintroduce “conservative family values,” encourage heterosexual marriage and childbearing, and disempower women. “They’re all connected,” Zug says.
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