OUR SEVEN CORE VALUES:
A Sad Anniversary
Forty years ago this fall, “no-fault” divorce was pioneered in the United States by the state of California when then-Governor Ronald Reagan signed into law the Family Law Act of 1969 on September 4, 1969 (effective January 1, 1970). The new law eliminated the need for couples to assert spousal wrongdoing in pursuit of a divorce. But no-fault divorce also destroyed marriage of its legal power to bind husband and wife, allowing one spouse to divorce another for any reason—or not reason—at all.
Michael Reagan described his pain when his parents, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, divorced: “Divorce is where two adults take everything that matters to a child— the child’s home, family, security and sense of being loved and protected— and they smash it all up, leave it in ruins on the floor, then walk out and leave the child to clean up the mess.”
Years later, Ronald Reagan told Michael that signing the no-fault divorce law was his “greatest regret.”
In the fifteen years that followed, almost every state in the nation followed suit and enacted a no-fault divorce law of its own. By 1977, nine states had adopted no-fault divorce laws and by late 1983, every state but South Dakota and New York had adopted some form of no-fault divorce (although some were not as easy to obtain as that in California).
Not surprisingly, from 1960 to 1980, the divorce rate in America nearly doubled—from 9.2 divorces per 1,000 married women to 22.6 divorces per 1,000 married women. This means that, while the 20 percent of couples who married in 1950 ended up divorced, about 50 percent of couples who married in 1970 did. And while half the children born to married parents in the 1970s experienced a parental divorce, only 11 percent of those born in the 1950s went through this ordeal.
Clearly, the fallout of no-fault divorce has been a poisonous one for our country.
Looking at the state of our unions forty years later, however, there is a measure of hope.
The good news is that, by and large, divorce has declined since 1980. The divorce rate fell from a high of 22.6 divorces per 1,000 married women in 1980 to 17.5 in 2007.
This decline in divorce can be linked in part to the fact that views on divorce and family breakdown have changed significantly in recent decades.
“Social-science data about the consequences of divorce have moved many scholars across the political spectrum to warn against continuing the divorce revolution, and to argue that intact families are essential, especially to the well-being of children.” (“The Evolution of Divorce,” W. Bradford Wilcox)
The bad news is that when it comes to divorce and marriage, America is increasingly divided among class and educational lines. This growing divide means that college-educated married couples are about half as likely to divorce as their less-educated peers. Well-educated spouses who come from intact families, who enjoy annual incomes of over $60,000, and who conceive their first child in wedlock have exceedingly low rates of divorce.
This “divorce divide” in America means that the breakdown of marriage in working-class and poor communities plays a major role in fueling poverty and inequality. Meanwhile, the dissolution of marriage in these communities has “fueled the growth of government, as federal, state and local governments spend more money on police, prisons, welfare and court costs, trying to pick up the pieces of broken families.” (Wilcox)
While we may never be able to turn back the clock and overthrow destructive no-fault divorce laws, we can work towards reforms that would help reduce the ill effects of this 40-year old legacy.
Palmetto Family has that as its mission every single day.
As the only organization of its kind in South Carolina, Palmetto Family believes that our state’s social fabric is only as strong as the bond between its husbands and wives.
From helping preserve strong alimony laws that alleviate some of the fallout from no-fault divorce, to helping South Carolinians stay married by receiving tax credit for marriage counseling, Palmetto Family Council has worked tirelessly to strengthen marriages in our state.
Your donations help! Please visit Palmetto Family’s website today and make a financial contribution. It will only take a minute, but the impact will reach far into the future. Thank you!
www.PalmettoFamily.org
One Response to “A Sad Anniversary”
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Nice. Thanks for writing this. It is always nice to see someone help out the interet.