While there were huge increases in divorce after divorce is legalized or becomes more easily available, that change in the law itself is not even necessarily the trigger. Although it's debated, what is sometimes blamed the trigger for the U.S. increase in divorce is the availability of a "no-fault" divorces. That's when some argue the rates skyrocketed.
But in that critique, there's an embedded presumption that the divorces are really "no fault." And that the couples who get them are taking are the easy way out, when, in fact, that really may not be the case. I'll admit that's an understandable reaction, if you just look at the timeline on divorce.
You might disapprove of the number of divorces in general, but then think about your friend who got divorced. Think about your own divorce. Because in critiques of the rising numbers of divorces, we forget that divorces aren't numbers. They are relationships. And just because it's easy to check a box on a form doesn't mean it's easy to end the relationship. It can be devastating.
And just because the form says "No fault" – that isn't necessarily really be the truth. The couple knows what's happened. They have just decided to keep it to themselves.
People get divorced for really good reasons.
For example, from 20 to 30 percent of divorced marriages involved domestic violence. Separated and divorced women are 14 times more likely to report that they've been victims of violence. A study in Canada found that 50 percent of divorced women there had been abuse victims. 4.
It used to be that wife-beating wasn't a reason to leave your husband. In some cultures, it still isn't. (And in case we think those cultures are so distant – it wasn't until 1992 that the U.S. Catholic Bishops issued a statement that women didn't have to stay married in an abusive relationship – because Catholic wives thought (or were being told) that they had to stay and save their marriage.) 5.
Once you start adding in infidelity, alcohol and drug abuse, the idea that divorces are really "no fault" becomes a farce. Yes, of course, there are the opportunist divorces as well, but how would we protect those with real reasons to divorce without getting them, too? What's the alternative?
Life is 2short to wake up in the morning with regrets. LOVE KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS*SOPHIEBABY* :*
Posted: at 13-07-2010 07:50 AM (13 years ago) | Addicted Hero |
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