Olivia Anderson

Instructor Sobocinski

ENG1201

20 March 2022

Strict Divorce Laws in Relation to Divorce Frequency

As society advances in the United States, divorce seems more frequent than marriage.

What are the reasons for this? Many experts believe the fault lies in the increasing disregard for

divorce. The experts argue that as divorce laws have become more lenient, married couples have

become immune to the effects of divorce. This realization leads to the question, how would an

increase in strict laws affect the frequency of divorces?

As far as history books go back, divorce has been regarded as a disrespectful and unholy

act. During the times of the Church in the earlier centuries, divorce was considered a crime.

What changed? Why has divorce become so common in society? Perhaps the reasoning for

divorce lies in the way society has evolved. In the 1960s during President Ronald Raegan’s

presidency, he was said to have made the worst mistake of his life. He signed a bill that enabled

married couples to divorce no-fault. Within a matter of years of the bill being based, “...44 states

would follow suit and pass some form...” (Davis). When Raegan signed that bill, he

unconsciously created an increase in the acceptance and frequency of divorce, with divorces

more than doubling in a twenty-year time span (Davis). Divorce has continued to climb with

society’s economy. In many cases of elderly couples requiring nursing care facilities, couples

have had to “...sever legal ties to preserve one spouses’ livelihood...” (Carroll). These dramatic

increases in divorce rates have led many experts to wonder, why is this happening? Is there a
way to change it? To find the answer to those questions, experts have had to investigate the past;

looking at the divorce laws that were once intact that seemed to render divorces useless.

As divorce has increased, so have the questions of why. Why has divorce become so

common? Who is at fault? Many experts believe that the faulty divorce repercussions have made

it “too easy” for couples to divorce. Others believe that the older generation has lost its respect

for marriage and the ideals that it stands for.

In the November 2021 Yale Law Journal, When Marriage Is Too Much, Mary Charlotte

Y. Carroll goes into extreme depth discussing how American society might be a cause of the

inclining divorce rates. She relays credible information through her use of first-hand stories. One

example is about the relationship between an elderly couple who was forced into divorce due to

the heavy financial burden of a spouses’ livelihood. Carroll goes onto say that the “...U.S.

healthcare system punishes those who have done everything right.” She goes on to discuss how

she believes that if the United States were to remand their laws that cause couples to end in

divorce, the rate of successful marriages would be infinitely higher. Her goal in authoring the

article is to bring strong awareness of the laws, a call to action.

However, some may seem to disagree, saying that divorce would not be fixed by

reformed laws, but by positive parental influence. How 50 Years of No-Fault Divorce Gave Us a

Throw-Away Culture, an article written by Daniel Davis in September 2019, goes into detail

about how Davis believes parents are at fault for the rise in divorces. He cites conversations from

celebrities saying how they believe they would not have gotten a divorce if their parents had

remained married. Davis states how adults now treat marriage vows as “...mere poetry for a

romantic ceremony...”. This view on marriage can have harmful effects on offspring, as stated in

the article (Davis). Davis’s purpose of the article is to bring awareness to how he does not
believe that divorce stems from faulty laws, such as Mary Charlotte Y. Carroll does in her article,

When Marriage Is Too Much. Instead, Davis believes the problems stem from a lack of priority

from the older generation and intends to warn the upcoming generations from falling into those

beliefs.

Rachel Burnbaum brings continued awareness to the effects of divorce on children in her

article, Views of the Child Report. Burnbaum goes into extreme depth, describing the “...direct

experiences of 24 children and their...” horrifying psychological effects on children by

witnessing parental dispute/divorce. This article, aimed at parents, serves as a warning of the

way that divorce can cause children to feel alone and abandoned. This article coincided with

Daniel Davis’s article, How 50 Years of No-Fault Divorce Gave Us a Throw-Away Culture, by

discussing how both believe divorce rates have excelled due to parental influence. Each article

contains credible information yet appears to be outdated. However, the date does not necessarily

matter, as both have accurately predicted that the information presented in the articles would

only continue to become increasingly true as the years pass.

The video, “Expensive Weddings and Divorce Rates” published by the New York Times

adds additional statistics to the causes of divorce. The video argues that rather than loose laws

being at cause for divorces, the fault lies in the way the weddings are enacted. The video argues

that “...lowering costs can lead to a long marriage...” (“Expensive Weddings and Divorce

Rates”). While the video was originally intended to reach engaged women during their selection

of wedding dresses, the video has gone on to bring strong awareness to how grand expectations

can cause divorce.

Reconstructing Liberty, Equality, and Marriage by Nan D. Hunter from August 2020

dives deep into the beliefs that the Nineteenth Amendment could be a cause of the increase in
divorce rates, but for a positive reason. Hunter says that before the Nineteenth Amendment,

women were expected to “...be properly confined to the domestic sphere...” of their husbands,

obeying and proceeding life under the request of their husbands (Hunter). Hunter argues that the

Nineteenth Amendment provided women with a chance to fight for their rights in divorce,

instead of it being the men’s sole decision. This article is intended to reach an audience who

believes that the reformation of divorce laws was strictly bad. Hunter asks his audience to

imagine what society would be like without the Nineteenth Amendment’s liberties for women.

How would women be able to leave a hostile marriage without the freedoms granted in the

Nineteenth Amendment? The article coincides with Mary Charlotte Y. Carroll’s article, When

Marriage Is Too Much, by blaming divorce rates on the acts of the government.

The findings throughout the article lead readers to wonder, would more strict laws affect

the rate of divorce? Would the change in divorce be positive or negative? These questions are

ones that have yet to be answered, but through continued research, the answers are near in sight.
 Working Bibliography

Birnbaum, Rachel. "Views of the Child Reports: Hearing Directly from Children

Involved in Post- Separation Disputes." Social Inclusion, vol. 5, no. 3, July 2017,

pp. 148+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A554689218/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC

&xid=92009640. Accessed 20 Mar. 2022.

Carroll, Mary Charlotte Y. "When Marriage Is Too Much: Reviving the Registered

Partnership in a Diverse Society." Yale Law Journal, vol. 130, no. 2, Nov. 2020,

pp. 478+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A649536411/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC

&xid=1fdefdc9. Accessed 20 Mar. 2022.

Davis, Daniel. "How 50 Years of No-Fault Divorce Gave Us a Throwaway Culture."

Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2022. Gale In Context:

Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/MEBYYS756800450/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmar

k-OVIC&xid=02543c12. Accessed 20 Mar. 2022. Originally published as "How

50 Years of No-Fault Divorce Gave Us a Throwaway Culture," The Daily Signal,

3 Sept. 2019.

"Expensive Weddings and the Divorce Rate." NYTimes.com Video Collection, 17 Oct.

2016. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/CT470449422/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVI

C&xid=d656bba7. Accessed 20 Mar. 2022.

Hunter, Nan D. "Reconstructing Liberty, Equality, and Marriage: The Missing Nineteenth

Amendment Argument." Georgetown Law Journal, vol. 108, no. SE, June 2020,

pp. 73+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A630831512/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmarkOVIC

&xid=75ea09ef. Accessed 2p Mar. 2022.