What is ‘no-fault’ divorce? Why are US conservatives against it?

After overturning a woman’s federal right to have an abortion in America, some conservatives have another target in their sights – ‘no-fault’ divorce.Steven Crowder, who has been going through a divorce since 2021, is just among a slew of right-wing personalities in the US taking aim at ‘no-fault divorce’.“No, this was not my choice,” Crowder told his followers last week. “My then wife decided that she didn’t want to be married anymore and in the state of Texas, that is completely permitted.”This after Crowder last year called for ‘reform’ in divorce laws.But what is a ‘no-fault’ divorce? How does it work? And why do some US conservatives want it outlawed?Let’s take a closer look:What is it? How does it work?According to the Cornell law school website, a ‘no-fault’ divorce is the most common type of divorce.While a ‘traditional’ divorce seeks to assign blame on one party in court for the breakdown of a marriage – physical or mental cruelty, adultery and desertion are the most common examples – a ‘no-fault’ divorce requires no such proof be furnished.

The party that wishes to leave the marriage just files a case saying the union has broken down.

According to The Week, the US’ first no-fault law was signed by then California governor Ronald Raegan.Over the years, other states slowly began bringing in laws that allowed ‘no-fault’ divorce. New York, incidentally, was the last state to bring in such a law – in 2010!All US states now recognise ‘no-fault’ divorce.In all, 17 states including California, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, Kentucky, Kansas, Iowa, Indiana, Hawaii, Florida, and Colorado have adopted ‘pure’ no-fault divorce – meaning that ‘fault’ divorce is not an option.What do proponents of ‘no-fault’ divorce say?That it gives women options and has vastly improved the lot of women since it was introduced.They point to a “large decline” (around 20 per cent) in the number of women committing suicide since it was introduced and a drop in domestic violence, as per The Week.According to Rolling Stone, the cases of spousal homicide against women have also decreased.As one researcher told the outlet this is “not just because abused women (and men) could more easily divorce their abusers, but also because potential abusers knew that they were more likely to be left.”Critics also say that taking aim at no-fault divorce is simply another means of controlling women – and their bodies.[caption id="attachment_12543742" align="alignnone" width="640"]

Conservatives have long argued that such divorces hurt marriage and the American family. AFP[/caption]So why do some conservatives want it outlawed?The more traditional conservatives and outlets like National Review have linked such divorces to the decline of marriage as an institution and the break-up of the American family.

Some, like Crowder, think women are ‘gold-diggers’.

As he told his followers last year, “If you’re a woman that comes from meager means, and you want to get wealthy—you’ve never worked, you didn’t get a degree, you have no skill set, but you’re good-looking—your best path to victory is simply to marry a man, leave him, and take half. … We need to reform divorce laws in this country.”Oh, it’s no-fault divorce, which, by the way, means that in many of these states if a woman cheats on you, she leaves, she takes half,” Crowder added. “So it’s not no-fault, it’s the fault of the man.”“There need to be changes to marital laws, and I’m not even talking about same-sex marriage,” he added. “Talking about divorce laws, talking about alimony laws, talking about child support laws.”Others, like YouTuber Tim Pool, claim it ‘destroyed the confidence of men’ in the institution of marriage.Daily Wire writers Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles have repeatedly taken aim at ‘no-fault’ divorces. “We see the weakening of marriage through no-fault divorce,” Knowles said as per Media Matters. “This is a very bad turn of events.”“Do you think society has gotten much better since the social and sexual revolutions of the 1960s? Or has it gotten a little bit worse?” Knowles asked. “Are we in a period of ascendancy or a period of decline?”JD Vance, who was running for the US Senate in 2022, accused people of changing spouses like they do their underwear and argued for partners remaining in violent marriages.“This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that like, ‘well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term,’” Vance was quoted as saying by Vice.“And maybe it worked out for the moms and dads, though I’m skeptical. But it really didn’t work out for the kids of those marriages,” Vance continued. “And that’s what I think all of us should be honest about, is 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.”And this isn’t just talk.

According to Rolling Stone, the Texas GOP last year called for an end to no-fault divorce.

“We urge the Legislature to rescind unilateral no-fault divorce laws, to support covenant marriage, and to pass legislation extending the period of time in which a divorce may occur to six months after the date of filing for divorce.”The Louisiana Republican Party is thinking on similar lines, while the Nebraska Republicans have said only childless couples should be able to get ‘no-fault’ divorces.In 2016, the RNC considered adding to its party platform language that called for ‘no-fault’ divorces to be replaced by ‘fault-based’ divorce.With inputs from agenciesRead all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.