The Heritage Foundation Urges Lawmakers To Eliminate No-Fault Divorce

From the authors of Project 2025 and the Phoenix Declaration, an education policy being adopted in certain conservative-leaning states, comes a new report that urges lawmakers to do away with no-fault divorce. Late last week, right-wing political group The Heritage Foundation published a report titled “Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation for the Next 250 Years.”

Currently, all 50 states and Washington, D.C., offer no-fault divorce, which means that either party can end a marriage without having to provide a reason or prove any wrongdoing, like abuse or adultery. American marriages used to require a fault of some kind to dissolve, but some couples would agree upon a fictitious fault in order to divorce one another, or they would travel to a more lenient region of the country — these were known as divorce havens. The bill outlining no-fault divorce was introduced in 1947 by the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), who said they “feared the likelihood that men would once again be determining matters of great importance for women’s lives.”

But in recent years, eliminating no-fault divorce has become a hot topic for conservative lawmakers. There have been proposals to overturn no-fault divorce in Texas, Nebraska, and Louisiana. “In South Dakota, Rep. Tony Randolph has introduced a bill each year since 2020 to remove irreconcilable differences as grounds for divorce,” according to the South Dakota ACLU.

Because The Heritage Foundation’s texts have become roadmaps for President Donald Trump’s administration, this new report suggests no-fault divorce may take the national stage in the coming year. In the report, they assert that with no-fault divorce laws in place, “a person who is no longer ‘feeling it’ can unilaterally end a marriage,” noting that divorce rates spiked after no-fault policies were adopted.

Instead, they say divorces should be legally harder to exit. They argue that the increased risk of marriages being ended unilaterally “likely dissuades many people from getting married in the first place.” They go on to call out community property states, in which income, assets, and debt acquired during the marriage are split 50/50 between both parties upon separation, saying “they act as perverse incentives for ending marriages that could otherwise have been saved.”

Their policy proposals include:

• Changing alimony statutes to allow lump-sum settlements, immediate termination of spousal support upon remarriage, and automatic recalculation if the recipient’s income rises above a certain threshold, which would “reduce the financial incentive to leave a marriage where major breaches of a couple’s vows (such as infidelity, abuse, or abandonment) are not present.”
• Create public scorecards for family court judges detailing the percentage of their rulings that award 50-50 custody, case length, and more.
• Governors, private donors, and family foundations could provide commendations and financial awards for couples every decade they remain married. The Heritage Foundation also encourages local media to spotlight couples who have been married for 50 years.

The ACLU states that attacks on no-fault divorce are dangerous for women and children, particularly those who are victims of domestic violence. Proving abuse in court can be “a lengthy and arduous process,” the org says, one that may expose women “to further harm, intimidation, and retaliation from their abusive partners, who may try to discredit or intimidate them during legal proceedings.” They also point out that not every party will have control of their finances and be able to access legal representation and protections.

Notably, a 2004 paper by economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers also found an 8 to 16% decrease in female suicides over time in states with no-fault divorce law.s, as well as a 30% decrease in intimate partner violence for men and women alike. They also discovered a 10% decrease in the number of women murdered by their partners.

A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research also found that states that passed no-fault divorce laws saw total female suicide decline by around 20% over time. The National Organization for Women (NOW) also states in a 2024 blog post that “although divorce rates generally increased” after no-fault divorce was implemented, “no-fault divorce did not promote divorces but merely allowed all those who wished to dissolve a marriage to finally do so without an overly-prolonged and burdensome legal process. The rise in divorce rates reflected a pre-existing public desire, as opposed to an increased interest arising from the changing laws.”

In a press release announcing the report’s publication, The Heritage Foundation says this report is the first in a series outlining a conservative vision for American families — so there will be more to come.