This column was originally published by Sheila Kennedy on her blog, “A Jaundiced Look at the World We Live In.”
By Sheila Kennedy
August 9, 2026
When women assert that bans on abortion are part of a wide-ranging war on women, the pious “Christian” activists behind these bans are deeply offended. They are simply trying to protect innocent pre-born babies with those bans! (If a few women with problem pregnancies die as a result, their pro-life beliefs evidently aren’t implicated.) They have no response when we point out that an actual concern for babies would be accompanied by concerns for the well-being of those babies once they emerge from the womb–and that no such concern is being evidenced.
But abortion bans and urges to revert to a “tradwife” existence aren’t the only evidence of a war on women. Christian nationalists keep trying to curtail access to birth control, and there is a little-noticed movement to keep women from leaving abusive marriages.
Lincoln Square recently reported on the growing GOP plan to ban no-fault divorce. According to the report, the White Christian nationalists who currently lead our government want to end no-fault divorce, and several states have legislation in the works to do just that.
Research shows that in the wake of no-fault divorce, which allows women to leave marriages without having to prove adultery or abuse, domestic violence dropped 30%. Female suicide dropped 16%. Incidents in which women were killed by their husbands or domestic partners dropped 10%.
Lincoln Square looked at the data from Texas, which is considering legislation to repeal no-fault divorce. It found that 99% of Texas divorces are no-fault, and 70% of Texas divorces are filed by women. Under the proposed new guidelines, any woman who filed for divorce would have to be “approved,” and in many cases, the law would require both people in the marriage to agree to the divorce. As the author wryly notes, “Yes. That’s right. A man can abuse his wife, and then block her from leaving the marriage so that he can continue abusing her.”
The AP has looked at the broader movement to repeal no-fault divorce, noting that Republican Party platforms in Texas and Nebraska were amended in 2022 to call for the removal of no-fault divorce and that Louisiana’s Republican Party had considered something similar but declined to do so.
In January, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Dusty Deevers introduced legislation that would have removed married couples from filing for divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. Deevers backed the bill after writing a piece declaring no-fault divorce was an “abolition of marital obligation.”
Similarly, in South Carolina, two Republican lawmakers in 2023 filed a bill that would have required both spouses to file for a no-fault divorce application rather than just one. And in South Dakota, a Republican lawmaker has attempted to remove irreconcilable difference as grounds for divorce since 2020.
None of the sponsors of these bills responded to interview requests from The Associated Press. All are members of their state’s conservative Freedom Caucus.
California was the first state to adopt no-fault divorce in 1969, and other states soon followed. Before that change, anyone wanting a divorce had to prove that their spouse had violated one of the enumerated “faults” recognized by their state. Faults that qualified varied from state to state, but usually included infidelity, incarceration or abandonment.
The system was a particular burden on domestic violence victims, often times women, who could be stuck in dangerous marriages while they try to prove their partner’s abuse in court through expensive and lengthy legal proceedings.
Christian F. Nunes, then-president of the National Organization for Women, became “extremely worried” about the movement to repeal no-fault divorce when Trump won the 2024 election, and Republicans gained control of Congress and trifectas in a number of states.
“With so many states focusing on a misogynistic legislative agenda, this will turn back the clocks on women’s rights even more,” Nunes said in a statement. “This is why removing ‘no fault’ divorce is another way for the government to control women, their bodies, and their lives.”
Those concerns about the administration’s agenda have grown, as Vice-President Vance has moved steadily to the Right; in a speech in 2021, he lamented that divorce is too easily accessible and criticized laws allowing people to “shift spouses like they change their underwear.” And among the lesser-known proposals in Project 2025–many of which the Trump administration is pursuing–was ending no-fault divorce.
The only consistent through-line of the Trump agenda is its racism and misogyny. The War on Women is only one reason to Vote Blue No Matter Who in November, but it’s an extremely important one.
Sheila Suess Kennedy is Emerita Professor of Law and Public Policy at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. As an attorney, she practiced real estate, administrative and business law in Indianapolis before becoming corporation counsel for the City of Indianapolis in 1977. In 1980, she was the Republican candidate for Indiana’s then 1th Congressional District and in 1992, she became executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. She joined the faculty of the School of Public and Environment al Affairs in 1998.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
