RELEASE: Missourians Sound the Alarm on Senator Hawley’s Stance to Make Divorce Harder
Hawley’s Longstanding Opposition to No-Fault Divorce Poses Threat to Women and Family Safety
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 1, 2024
Contact: claire@progressmo.org
JEFFERSON CITY, MO: On Thursday, Missouri advocates and experts held a virtual press conference on the dangers posed by Senator Josh Hawley’s long-held opposition to no-fault divorce. A recording recently made public by Rolling Stone revealed that Hawley supports drastic changes to divorce laws, advocating for the elimination of no-fault divorce.
Click here for a link to today’s media event.
No-fault divorce provides a critical escape route for individuals, particularly women, to leave potentially dangerous or unhealthy marriages without facing insurmountable legal hurdles.
Speakers on the call condemned Hawley’s stance and detailed the chilling consequences for Missourians if no-fault divorce were to disappear.
Hon. Margaret T. Donnelly, retired family law judge and former Missouri State Representative, said, “At a time when family courts in Missouri are encouraging families in the middle of a divorce to mediate and solve their legal issues peacefully, Josh Hawley wants to throw them back into the arena to battle it out. Having to blame the other spouse for bad behavior and then spending several days in front of a judge testifying to that misconduct is destructive to those families, and especially to their children. Abolishing no-fault divorce will not stop divorce. It will only make it much harder for families and their children to move forward to the best possible future.”
Liz McCune, Progress Missouri Executive Director: “Josh Hawley wants to take us back to the days when women had no way out of unsafe marriages. His stance on divorce is anti-woman, anti-family and downright dangerous. Hawley’s extreme positions, like his embrace of white Christian nationalism, betray Missouri values and endanger families. Missourians deserve better, and it’s time we demand it.”
Madeleine Hatler, Victim Advocate: “Asking a survivor to prove they have been abused can put them into increased danger. Rolling back our family law for more than 50 years makes survivors less safe and adds an undue burden on them during an already difficult and traumatic time. Senator Hawley’s stance ignores the reality of domestic abuse and puts vulnerable Missourians at risk.”
Adding to the danger survivors face, requiring them to prove abuse to obtain a divorce could trap them in dangerous situations for longer periods. Taking away no-fault divorce does nothing but make them less safe.
“Survivors already have to overcome systematic manipulation by their abusive partner to flee an abusive marriage,” Hatler added. “Asking a survivor to prove that they have been in an abusive situation can do nothing but put them in danger. Taking away no-fault divorce does nothing but make them less safe.”
The growing push to roll back no-fault divorce is also fueled in part by Christian nationalism, a dangerous ideology championed by Senator Hawley, who recently declared, “Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian nation. So I am. And some will say that I am advocating Christian nationalism. And so I do.”
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