Fresh off their victory in November’s vote on the same-sex marriage amendment, Virginia’s religious conservatives are now urging radical changes in Virginia’s divorce laws that would make it harder for people to get divorced.
RICHMOND, Jan. 4 — After its victory in last year’s fight over a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Virginia, the Family Foundation of Virginia announced Thursday that it will push to change the state’s divorce laws to make it more difficult for parents to end their marriage.
The Family Foundation, which opposes abortion and promotes socially conservative values, said it will lobby the General Assembly this year to amend the state’s long-standing no-fault divorce law, which essentially allows a husband or wife to terminate a marriage without cause.
The foundation is advocating “mutual consent divorce” for couples with children, which would require a husband and wife to agree to divorce before a marriage can be legally terminated, except in certain instances, such as abuse or cruelty. The proposed legislation would not affect childless couples.
Under current Virginia law, either spouse can move for divorce based simply on the fact that they parties have been separated for a given period of time. One year where children were born of the marriage, six months when are no children. In addition to this, all the traditional “fault” grounds for divorce still exist, but they are, quite honesttly, incredibly difficult to prove. Meaning that, in most cases, even where there has been fault of one kind or another in a marriage, it is far simpler to get a divorce on separation grounds than to engage in the timely and expensive litigation required to prove fault in a divorce situation.
But the Family Foundation would change that and essentially give one spouse veto power over the divorce question when children are involved.
Let me begin by saying that I think divorce is an unfortunate event, doubly so when children are involved. However, in my legal career, I’ve encountered more than one married couple, with and without children, who quite honestly just shouldn’t be married any more. If one party to the marriage wants out, then what’s the point of prolonging an already poisonous relationship by giving the other spouse veto power as the Family Foundation proposes ? Do they honestly think that this is going to make things better ?
Forcing someone who is unhappy in their marriage to stay there is not going to magically transform the household into a Leave it to Beaver happy family. If anything else, it will just make things worse.
Just as people should have the right to marry who they choose, they should have the right to end that marriage at the time they choose.
H/T: Craig’s Musings
March 6th, 2007 at 12:15 am
based on the Virginia law, either spouse can move for divorce based simply on the fact that they parties have been separated for a given period of time. One year where children were born of the marriage, six months when are no children. In addition to this, all the traditional ?fault? grounds for divorce still exist, but they are, quite honestly, incredibly difficult to prove. Meaning that, in most cases, even where there has been fault of one kind or another in a marriage, it is far simpler to get a divorce on separation grounds than to engage in the timely and expensive litigation required to prove fault in a divorce situation.this article is very interesting for divorce separation, click on the link
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