Right-Wing Attacks on No-Fault Divorce – A Dangerous Reality for Women
Now-Vice President JD Vance attacks no-fault divorce during a 2021 interview at Pacifica Christian High School and argues that women in even “violent” marriages should not get divorced. (Source)
March 8, 2025 ~ By Brooke Pland
Until the late 1960s, fault-based divorce perpetuated harm against American women by making it nearly impossible to legally divorce their husbands. Today, far-right politicians aligned with the goals of Project 2025, including Vice President JD Vance, want to return to that reality with their attacks on no-fault divorce.
- Why No-Fault Divorce Is a Women’s Rights Issue
- Attacks on No-Fault Divorce by JD Vance & Project 2025
- Why Are Right-Wing States Trying to End No-Fault Divorce?
In 1969, then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan became the first to sign the right to a no-fault divorce into state law. Until that point, one spouse had to prove “fault” in a court of law or produce a legitimate reason of a certain caliber, such as adultery, cruelty, or abandonment for seeking a divorce.
Often, a witness to the fault in question was required to testify. The list of legally recognized faults for divorce varied from state to state, with some states maintaining far shorter lists of valid faults than others. Sometimes, married couples would be forced to travel to a more moderate state in order to improve their chances of a successful separation – a method referred to as “divorce tourism.”
The fault-based divorce system dates back to colonial America, and while the state-mandated lists of valid faults grew longer and more lenient over time, judges still held the power to deny a couple their divorce for a number of reasons. For example, a judge could deny the divorce if he questioned the validity of the couple’s fault or otherwise suspected they had fabricated a reason for the divorce. In many situations, a couple may exhaust all their options and still find themselves legally unable to separate.
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As second-wave feminism ushered in unprecedented advances for women’s rights in the 1960s, the American divorce system began to reflect this new reality. Upon the historical induction of no-fault divorce into California law at the turn of the decade, Gov. Reagan, having himself been divorced and remarried prior to taking office, said of no-fault divorce, “I believe it is a step towards removing the acrimony and bitterness between a couple that is harmful not only to their children but also to society as a whole.”
Other states followed California’s lead over the next several decades, and New York became the very last to pass no-fault divorce legislation in 2010.
Why No-Fault Divorce Is a Women’s Rights Issue
Not only was the fault-based divorce system inconsistent and restrictive, it disproportionately put women at risk. A woman desiring to leave her marriage would have to wait until her circumstances escalated to the point of legal basis for divorce. But in some states, the only legally recognized fault was adultery, which kept many women in dangerous or violent marriages without a legal way out.
What’s more, without a witness to the mistreatment or abuse taking place, a woman’s chances at a successful divorce were significantly hindered or even made impossible, depending on the state she lived in. And even if she had both a legal basis for filing and a witness, having to prove her husband’s fault in court was an emotionally and financially burdensome process. Whether seeking legal protection from abuse or an end to an unhappy marriage so that she might remarry, the fault-based divorce system was a nightmare for women.
Graph showing marriage and divorce rates in the U.S. from 1990 to 2007. (Source)
Over the last 50 years, the no-fault divorce system has ushered in serious improvements for women’s rights in America, including notable reductions in domestic violence. In 2004, researchers examined the correlation between states enacting no-fault divorce laws and violence against women in those states; their report noted an approximately 30% decrease in intimate partner violence among both men and women, as well as a 10% decrease in partner-perpetrated homicides against women. Researchers also found a decrease in the number of women who committed suicide, ranging from a 8% to 16% drop.
TIME reports that 70% of divorces today are initiated by women, according to data from 2022. Most of them cite “irreconcilable differences” as the cause for filing. Under the previous fault-based divorce system, many of those women likely would have been forced to continue suffering in marriages which they had no legal ability to leave.
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While a number of inconsistencies still exist in the divorce system state-to-state – for instance, some states maintain a dual system of both fault and no-fault divorce laws, and others hold only the latter – a woman’s right to a no-fault divorce is crucial to the safety and self-determination of women across the country.
Attacks on No-Fault Divorce by JD Vance & Project 2025
Despite the protections and freedoms amassed by no-fault divorce, the system has garnered a number of modern critics aligned with the mission of Project 2025, including Vice President JD Vance.
JD Vance calls no-fault divorce “one of the great tricks that … the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace” during a 2021 interview. (Source)
Vice President Vance spoke out against the system in 2021 at an appearance at Southern California’s Pacifica Christian High School, stating in a speech, “This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace…the idea that like, ‘well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally… maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term.’”
Vice President Vance has expressed other harsh opinions around women and marriage, including infamous 2021 remarks to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that the country is being run by “childless cat ladies” seeking to make “the rest of the country miserable.”
Opposition has also come from some of President Donald Trump’s closest allies, including Vivek Ramaswamy, the former co-lead of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency who is now running for Ohio governor. Ramaswamy advocated for ending no-fault divorce on his podcast in 2023.
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At least 22 groups on Project 2025’s advisory board have publicly opposed or otherwise attacked no-fault divorce. One such group is Turning Point USA, the conservative youth activist organization founded by Fox News talk show host Charlie Kirk. TPUSA commentator Alex Clark said in 2023, “No-fault divorce is an absolute tragedy. It is the catalyst for every other degenerate, marriage, and relationship problem that we have in society. It broke everything.”
And the backlash isn’t only coming from the online apparatus of the MAGA movement. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has referred to the modern divorce system as “the no-fault scheme,” and has cited it as partially responsible for a “completely amoral society.”
Why Are Lawmakers in Right-Wing States Trying to End No-Fault Divorce?
Conservative lawmakers and political pundits have named a number of reasons for targeting no-fault divorce, the biggest being the protection of the nuclear family, religious convictions around the permanence of marriage, and even resentment for the alimony system.
So far, several states are trying to end no-fault divorce. Right-wing lawmakers in Louisiana, Texas, and Nebraska have made efforts to eliminate or restrict it, while Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota have introduced bills to end it completely. None of these states have yet been successful in removing the right to no-fault divorce from state law.
Though VP Vance clearly wants no-fault divorce eliminated, President Trump hasn’t mentioned the issue and has himself been divorced twice. Regardless, many American women are deeply concerned about the future of divorce law.
“Five years ago, I would have said, there’s no way one of these bills would pass … because it doesn’t make any sense,” Southern Methodist University Law Professor Joanna Grossman told NPR in July. “But I’ve seen things pass in the past couple of years that I would have classified as … equally implausible.”
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