Is Eliminating No-Fault Divorce a Liberty Issue?

 

Is Eliminating No-Fault Divorce a Liberty Issue?

By

James Scott Trimm

We live in a disposable culture.  We have disposable razors, disposable dinnerware, disposable diapers, disposable lighters and disposable pens.  Snapchat allows users to share disposable images that are explicitly short-lived and self-deleting.

Through the magic of no-fault divorce, Texas has developed what could only be regarded as “disposable marriages”.  The sad fact is that forty three percent of Texas marriages end in divorce.  And the vast majority of divorces in Texas are “no fault” divorces.  The result is that a marriage in Texas is a less binding agreement than a mundane business contract.  One cannot just decide to walk away from his obligations under a business contract with a “no fault” exit, leaving the other party without recourse.  So why is a marriage which should be a much more sacred commitment so much less binding?

Marriage should normally be a lifetime bond, and only under rare, extraordinary circumstances should it end in divorce.  The University of Texas conducted a study that found that 33% of divorced spouses felt that they had not done enough to save their marriage. The same study also found that children of divorced couples are more likely to be prone to depression, arrests, addiction, and childhood sexual abuse.

Texas State Representative Matt Krause has filed a bill that would end “no fault” divorce in Texas, making marriage, once a again, a serious commitment and less “disposable”. 

Some have tried to spin this as a “liberty” issue.  I have even seen one meme from a liberty activist, showing an abused woman and implying Krause’s bill would require her to endure three years of abuse before leaving him.  This is completely dishonest.  Texas allows a spouse to sue for a “fault” divorce for cause of adultery, abandonment, cruelty, felony conviction, living apart for at least three years, or confinement to a mental hospital.  Krause’s Bill would simply eliminate no fault divorce. Because cruelty is cause for a fault divorce in Texas, such a woman could get a fault divorce on that very basis. 

It is well known that I am a big proponent of “liberty” within the Republican Party.  But this is not a liberty issue.  Everyone who enters a marriage in Texas does so of their own free will, and should do so with a mind that they are entering a union intended to be a lifetime bond. It is not a “liberty” issue when a person under contract cannot simply choose to, without cause, walk away from his contractual obligations under a business contract, leaving the other party with no recourse.  This bill would simply restore the idea that marriage is a serious commitment that means something, not merely a disposable relationship with less meaning than a business contract.