Legislators seek to make divorce a little harder

A state lawmaker in Indiana proposed a bill in January that would make it harder for couples with children to get a divorce. It’s not expected to get far, but supporters say they hope it will highlight the detrimental effects divorce has on children. Critics say it would endanger people at risk of domestic abuse and overtax an already maxed-out judicial system.

Indiana House Rep. Timothy Wesco, a Republican, proposed the measure, which would require couples with minor children filing for divorce to have a witness testify that the marriage could not be fixed. If they lacked a witness, the couple could make the case themselves. The law would not affect childless couples.

Wesco told WORLD that what he saw in a local family courtroom convinced him something had to be changed. “One couple I observed were laughing and small-talking one moment like they were on a walk in the park,” he wrote in an email. “Then a moment later [they] were affirming under oath before the judge that their marriage was ‘irretrievably broken.’”

He was especially concerned about the couple’s 13-year-old daughter. “In my view, losing one’s home and having to bounce between separate apartments is ruinous to life stability,” he said.

In Indiana, a couple can obtain a legal divorce if one spouse is a felon, insane, or impotent at the time of marriage. If those reasons don’t apply, they can choose the option “irretrievable breakdown of marriage,” and the court will move straight to child custody and property and asset division. Commonly known as no-fault divorce, this type doesn’t require courts to ask questions about who’s to blame. Since its adoption in all 50 states, the no-fault divorce process has made it faster and more efficient for anyone to walk away from his or her marriage. It’s the type of divorce Wesco likely witnessed in that Indiana courtroom.

Local media outlets in Indiana reported that Wesco’s bill would spell the end of no-fault divorce. But Wesco doesn’t see it that way, pointing out that his bill doesn’t require fault. “It simply requires validation or clarification of the stated grounds for divorce,” he said, since it asks couples to provide a witness or explain before a judge why they chose “irretrievable breakdown of the marriage” or other state-recognized grounds for divorce.

Indiana’s bill follows similar proposals in Republican-led states over the last year that also want to make it harder for couples to divorce. Last month, an Oklahoma legislator proposed two bills, one that would end no-fault divorce for all couples and the other that would give engaged couples the chance to earn a $2,500 tax credit by opting into a “covenant marriage,” which limits the grounds for divorce. A proposal in South Carolina would have required divorces to be initiated by both spouses—currently, only one signature is needed. In South Dakota, couples can name “irreconcilable differences” as grounds for divorce, but one lawmaker has been trying to eliminate that option since 2020.

None of these measures got far, and Wesco told me he knows his latest proposal doesn’t stand a chance either. But he and family advocates are hopeful these bills will start conversations about how divorces are handled in this country.

Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana supports Wesco’s proposal. Clark says that adding more steps to the divorce process will compel some unhappy couples to reconsider. “The argument that this makes the divorce take longer, I actually think is a good thing,” he said. “Attorneys don’t like it, but the longer divorce takes, the more of a cooling off period [couples] have, more time for consideration, more time for counseling.”

Clark says children will benefit the most, pointing out that research shows better life outcomes for children raised in two-parent households. According to Brad Wilcox’s 2024 book Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization, children of divorced parents are twice as likely to be suspended or expelled from school, 75% more likely to use drugs, and about half as likely to finish college.

Even so, some in the legal field argue that making divorce harder will frustrate those who desperately need to leave a marriage.

A lengthy divorce process can prolong abuse and endanger the lives of vulnerable spouses, said Joanna Grossman, a law professor at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law. Grossman told NPR last July that, as more states adopted no-fault divorce in the U.S., rates of domestic abuse fell, as did the number of homicides committed by a partner.

Making divorce harder will also undoubtedly make it more expensive. For states like Oklahoma, which are trying to end no-fault divorce, it could make marriage dissolution even messier for everyone involved—not just the couples, says Rik Lovett, a divorce lawyer in North Carolina.

“I think it’s going to be a nightmare from a procedural standpoint,” said Lovett. As a Christian, he agrees that divorce should be discouraged, and he regularly implores potential clients not to hire him if there’s any hope of saving their marriage. But he said that couples forced to go through a fault-based divorce would endure a lengthy trial. Lawyers would need to spend time looking for evidence that a spouse has been unfaithful, for example. It would also mean couples spend more time in limbo, wondering if a divorce will actually happen.

That might deter some, but not everyone. And Lovett says the courts won’t be ready to handle the extra work that’s involved in deciding who’s at fault.

“We don’t have the judges. We don’t have the court system that can handle it,” Lovett said. “I could see it just bogging things down completely, which would either really make people think twice, or really just make everyone hate each other and live in stress for two or three years until they got all their divorce stuff done.”

Steve Grissom, founder of the support group ministry DivorceCare, said after his wife left him more than 30 years ago, his life drastically changed for the worse. At home, he became the “every other weekend and Wednesday night dad”—until his wife moved away with their daughter. At work, he would close the door to his office and sob.

“It is like physically ripping a person in half,” he said. “It’s not clean, and there are gaping wounds that take years to heal. We need as much time to rethink the decision to divorce as possible. No-fault divorce creates the inverse effect.”