Breaking up isn’t hard enough to do

Easy divorce appears here to stay. Since no-fault laws were introduced in the 1970s, not one has been repealed.But is there really widespread support for “easy” divorce?

Not according to one of the nation’s most venerable public opinion polls.

In fact, for 30 years, most Americans have steadfastly told the General Social Survey (GSS) that they want divorce laws to be made “more difficult,” not “easier,” a Washington Times review has found.

In 19 surveys between 1974 and 2002, the GSS has asked a national sample of American adults: “Should divorce in this country be easier or more difficult to obtain than it is now?”

Every survey conducted shows that a majority or plurality of Americans think divorce should be made “more difficult.”

Even in the 1970s, when no-fault divorce laws were sweeping the nation, 42 percent of Americans wanted divorce to be “more difficult,” compared with 32 percent who wanted it to be “easier.”

Today, Americans are even more supportive of tougher divorce laws. In 2002, for instance, 49 percent said they wanted divorce to be “more difficult,” while 26 percent wanted it to be “easier.”

Not only does the GSS show that people want divorce to be more difficult, but, according to national divorce data, people are actually supporting the results of these surveys by not getting divorced in their own lives, said Kirk Johnson, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, who assisted The Washington Times by providing access to the GSS data.

Federal data show that divorce remains a common American experience despite having statistically fallen to 1972 levels.

In 2003, for instance, the divorce rate was 3.9 divorces per 1,000 people. This is down slightly from the 4.0 rate in 2001 and 2002, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

The 2003 rate is a heartening decline from the peak divorce rate of 5.3 divorces per 1,000 people in 1981. However, it is still far above the average divorce rate of 2.6 divorces per 1,000 people during the 30 years between 1940 and 1970.

Despite steadfast public support for tougher divorce laws, there has been very little headway made in that direction, said people who study divorce reform.

Every year, many states propose legislation to require premarital counseling, longer waiting periods before a divorce, or “mutual consent” from both spouses for a no-fault divorce. But these bills are rarely, if ever, passed, said John Crouch, executive director of Americans for Divorce Reform, a nonprofit group in Arlington that tracks divorce legislation.

Leaders in the legal arena even have signaled that they would like to see divorce expanded to include unmarried couples who break up.

Story Continues →