Republicans want to make it harder to get a divorce
They’ve come after abortion. They’ve come after birth control. They’ve come after IVF. Now it looks suspiciously like far-right Republicans might have a new target: no-fault divorce. If a certain subsection of Republicans get their way, obtaining a divorce in the US might soon become a lot more difficult.
No-fault divorce laws, in which either party can unilaterally get a divorce without having to prove the other person did something egregious, were first instituted in California in 1969 by the then governor, Ronald Reagan (who went on to become the first US president who had ever been divorced). By 2010 every state in the country had legalized a no-fault divorce option. The change in law seemed like common sense: before the shift, couples who no longer wanted to be together had to make up scenarios where someone was at fault, even sometimes faking adultery, to get a court to agree to let them split. And while it certainly wasn’t Reagan’s intention at the time, no-fault divorces were also a feminist act: they made it easier for women (and it usually was women) in abusive relationships to get out.
Want to know just how good for American women no-fault divorces were? A National Bureau of Economic Research study conducted in 2003, found a large decline in the number of women killing themselves following the introduction of no-fault divorce, but no similar decline for men. “Total female suicide declined by around 20% in states that adopted unilateral divorce,” according to the paper. There was also “a large decline in domestic violence for both men and women in states that adopted unilateral divorce … [and] suggestive evidence that unilateral divorce led to a decline in females murdered by their partners”.
If a law makes it easier for women to exercise their autonomy then you can be sure that Republicans will want to overturn it. (Reagan, according to his son, later called supporting no-fault divorce his “greatest regret” in life.) For years now, a number of conservative commentators and extremist lawmakers have been grumbling that getting divorced these days is too damn easy and something needs to be done about it to save the sanctity of marriage and uphold family values. Which, when you translate it from Republican-speak to plain English, means: we need to make it easier for men to treat women like their property.
Earlier this year, for example, Ben Carson – who has been mentioned as a possible Trump running-mate – took aim at no-fault divorces in his new book. “For the sake of families, we should enact legislation to remove or radically reduce incidences of no-fault divorce,” Carson wrote.
And, in January, the Oklahoma state senator Dusty Deevers (a far-right Christian pastor who describes himself as an “abortion abolitionist”) introduced a bill that would eliminate no-fault divorces in his state. (The bill didn’t get heard in the judiciary committee but that doesn’t mean it might not be resurrected.)
Then there’s Mike Johnson, the House speaker, who is in a “covenant marriage” with his wife. Three states (Louisiana, Arizona and Arkansas) offer these deeply religious arrangements which make divorce very difficult. (Johnson, in case it wasn’t obvious, is an extremist and a sex-obsessed weirdo. He’s boasted, for example, that he and his teenage son are “accountability partners” who monitor each’s internet habits to make sure they’re not watching porn.) He’s been railing about no-fault divorces for decades.
Conservatives complain about a lot of things; it can be hard to know what to take seriously. But there have been enough rumblings about divorce from high-profile voices on the right that the mainstream media is now starting to sit up and pay attention. “The Christian right is coming for divorce next,” Vox wrote on Thursday, for example, adding to a chorus of warnings. A decade ago the idea that Republicans might come after divorce (not exactly a vote winner) would have seemed far-fetched. As we have seen in recent years, however, the far right has been emboldened. Once fringe views have now moved very much into the mainstream. We should take even their most outlandish ideas very seriously indeed.
Why women with cancer are suing big beauty brands
A lot of makeup contains talcum powder. It’s probably in your dry shampoo, lipstick and foundation. Now women are coming forward with claims that talc-based makeup gave them asbestos-related mesothelioma. While the link between talcum powder and cancer hasn’t been proved, this in-depth Guardian piece is still a worrying read.
US supreme court unanimously upholds access to abortion pill mifepristone
The conservative-leaning supreme court isn’t suddenly overwhelmingly in support of a woman’s right to choose, it should be noted. While this decision is certainly a victory, it was based on a technicality: the court ruled anti-abortion activists did not prove that they had “standing” (AKA the legal right) to bring the case.
Free contraception and sex education helped Finland reduce teenage abortions by 66%
Which honestly seems like common sense, right? Someone in Finland should have a word with conservatives in the US.
UN expert calls for the Taliban to be held accountable for their crimes against women and girls
In March, the Taliban ordered that women be stoned to death for “crimes” like sex outside of marriage or leaving their homes. Since then things have continued to get grimmer for Afghan women and girls amid a system of discrimination that the UN special rapporteur calls “a crime against humanity”.
Spanish women tackle Wikipedia’s gender gap
Just under a fifth of Wikipedia’s content is focused on women and women only account for about 15% of its volunteer editors. Groups like Spain’s Wikiesfera are trying to change that.
Women may be more resilient than men to stresses of spaceflight
“Males appear to be more affected by spaceflight for almost all cell types and metrics,” says a new US study looking at the effects of space travel on the human immune system.
Children are still dying from forced starvation in Gaza
The UN relief agency for Palestinian has said Israel is still preventing it from delivering aid, amid reports of looming famine in Gaza. Children have been dying from starvation-related complications for months now and US lawmakers continue to cheer this carnage on.
Argentina’s far-right president poised to shut down anti-gender violence agency
“[Javier] Milei is dismantling the last resource against gender violence in public policy. He has established feminism as his enemy and he is punishing women again,” said one Argentinian activist.
Scientists may have figured out why women outlive men
Japanese researchers experimenting on killifish have shown that cells that develop into eggs in females and sperm in males drive sex differences in lifespan. “I think this research will be a stepping stone to understanding the control of ageing in humans,” the senior researcher said.
The week in pawtriarchy
Elephants call each other by individual names, according to a new study that used an artificial intelligence algorithm to analyze the calls of African savanna elephants in Kenya. Elephants are the first non-human animals known to invent “arbitrary” names for each other. And, apparently, they never forget a name.
