Proposals to repeal no-fault divorce cause concern even as efforts stall

(AP) Nashville, Tennessee No-fault divorce has been available to married couples in the United States for over 50 years. Many believe this option is essential for helping victims of domestic abuse and for keeping already overburdened family courts from becoming overwhelmed by the complexity of divorce procedures.

However, several women’s rights activists expressed concern after former remarks made by now-Vice President-elect JD Vance during the presidential campaign against no-fault divorce became viral. Moreover, social media started to provide cautions to women who could be thinking about getting a divorce as soon as possible after Vance and President-elect Donald Trump won the election. Several lawyers shared on social media that they were receiving more calls from women looking for divorce advice.

Trump, who has been divorced twice, has not advocated for changing the nation’s divorce rules. However, in 2021, Vance and other conservative podcasters bemoaned the ease with which divorce is now possible.

During a lecture at a Christian high school in California, Vance lambasted people for being able to switch wives like they change their underwear, saying, “We’ve run this experiment in real time and what we have is a lot of very, very real family dysfunction that’s making our kids unhappy.”

Despite reservations, even proponents of making divorces more difficult claim they don’t anticipate significant, immediate changes. A concerted national effort is not in progress. Additionally, states set their own divorce rules, therefore policymakers at the federal level cannot alter them.

According to Beverly Willett, co-chair of the Coalition for Divorce Reform, which has made fruitless attempts to persuade states to repeal their no-fault divorce laws, it hasn’t made any headway, even in some of the so-called red states.

While many Americans have become accustomed to the possibility of a no-fault divorce, Vance’s earlier remarks about making it more difficult to separate from a spouse could help spark that effort, according to Mark A. Smith, a professor of political science at the University of Washington.

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According to Smith, the subject hasn’t received much attention in the past 15 years, despite the fact that he isn’t specifically suggesting a policy. Therefore, it is notable that a politician with national prominence would say that.

In the meantime, the elimination of no-fault divorce was a 2022 amendment to the Republican Party agendas in Texas and Nebraska. Earlier this year, the Republican Party of Louisiana contemplated doing the same thing but decided against it.

Over the years, a few measures have been filed in statehouses controlled by conservatives, but they have all instantly stalled.

Sen. Dusty Deevers, a Republican from Oklahoma, sponsored legislation in January that would have prohibited married couples from divorcing on the grounds of incompatibility. After producing an article claiming that no-fault divorce eliminated marital obligations, Deevers supported the bill.

In a similar vein, a bill introduced by two Republican lawmakers in South Carolina in 2023 would have mandated that both spouses submit a no-fault divorce application instead of just one. Additionally, since 2020, a Republican lawmaker in South Dakota has worked to eliminate irreconcilable differences as grounds for divorce.

The Associated Press reached out to the sponsors of these bills for interviews, but none of them answered. Each is a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus in their state.

The future of no-fault divorce, however, continues to worry some Democratic politicians. They cite the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision to abolish the constitutional right to abortion as an illustration of a long-standing choice that was taken away after decades of work.

“You let this creep in when you choose to remain silent,” said Rep. Linda Duba, a Democrat from South Dakota. Your decision to remain silent allows these bills to acquire traction.

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According to Joanna Grossman, a law professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, married couples had to demonstrate that their spouse had committed one of the recognized faults listed in their state’s divorce law before California became the first state to implement a no-fault divorce option in 1969. If they didn’t, a judge would deny their divorce. Qualified reasons varied from state to state, but largely included infidelity, incarceration or abandonment.

The system was a particular burden on domestic violence victims, often times women, who could be stuck in dangerous marriages while they try to prove their partner s abuse in court through expensive and lengthy legal proceedings.

If there was any evidence that the couple both wanted to get divorced that was supposed to be denied because divorce was not something you got because you wanted it, it was something you got because you ve been wronged in a way that the state thought was significant, Grossman said.

To date, every state in the U.S. has adopted a no-fault divorce option. However, 33 states still have a list of approved faults to file as grounds for divorce ranging from adultery to felony conviction. In 17 states, married people only have the option of choosing no-fault divorce to end their marriages.

Calls to reform no-fault divorce have remained fairly silent until the late 1990s, when concern pushed by former President George Bush s administration over the country s divorce rate sparked a brief movement for states to adopt covenant marriages. The option didn t replace a state s no-fault divorce law, but provided an option for couples that carried counseling requirements and strict exceptions for divorce.

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Louisiana was the first state to embrace covenant marriage options, but the effort largely stopped after Arizona and Arkansas followed suit.

Christian F. Nunes, president of the National Organization for Women, said she is extremely worried about the possibility of no-fault divorce being removed with the incoming Trump administration, Republican-controlled Congress and wide range of conservative state leaders.

With so many states focusing on a misogynistic legislative agenda, this will turn back the clocks on women s rights even more, Nunes said in a statement. This is why removing no fault divorce is another way for the government to control women, their bodies, and their lives. Eliminating no-fault divorce is also a backdoor way of eliminating gay marriage, since this implies that a marriage is only between a man and a woman.

With Trump s reelection, Willett, whose group opposes no-fault divorce, said she s cautiously optimistic that the political tide could change.

Was what he said an indication of things to come? I don t know, Willett said. It s a good thing but it s certainly not anything that has been really discussed other than a few high profile conservatives who talk about it.

The Associated Press, 2024. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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