Maga’s war on divorce is really a war on women

Welcome to Trump’s America, The i Paper’s World Insight series presenting the sharpest, deepest thinking on an era-defining shift in history and politics, investigating how Donald Trump and his administration have changed the US and the world – and where we go from here. • $120,000 should be a great salary. In these US states, it isn’t• Maga’s worst nightmare: a child-free, unmarried female president• The more America spends on healthcare, the sicker it gets In 2022, no-fault divorce finally came to the UK. Couples can now simply call it quits by declaring an “irretrievable breakdown” in their marriage without needing to cite a reason (like adultery) for the split. The legal shake-up was hailed as a much-needed overhaul that would streamline the process of divorce and ease undue stress on couples and the family courts. In this aspect, we had lagged behind our neighbours across the pond for decades. In 1969, California became the first state to legalise no-fault divorce, with then-governor Ronald Reagan declaring : “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.” The rest of America soon followed. By 2010, every US state had legalised some form of no-fault divorce. The “no-fault revolution”, as it became known, had finally won. At least, until recently. Right-wing commentators like Daily Wire host Matt Walsh have previously shared support for an end to no-fault divorce, while podcasters Tim Pool and Steven Crowder argue that it creates a “raw deal” for men. Now-Vice President JD Vance argued on his 2021 Senate campaign trail that it let people “shift spouses like they change their underwear” (although, he hasn’t made any public comments on this since). House Speaker Mike Johnson has campaigned against it for years and once said that he holds it partly responsible for creating an “amoral society” that leads young people to “go into their schoolhouse and open fire on their classmates”. This isn’t all talk from politicians and conservative blow-hards, either. There is legislative momentum building in red states like Texas, Iowa and Louisiana, which are all attempting to scale back no-fault divorce. In Texas, Republican legislators have repeatedly called to abolish it and even introduced a bill to that effect. It failed in 2025 but the party has continued to commit to ending it as part of its 2026 policy agenda. Iowa Republicans have also introduced a bill that would allow couples to sign away their right to no-fault divorces when they get married. Critics of no-fault divorce argue that it has increased divorce rates and that ending it would lead to longer-lasting, happier American marriages. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The US divorce rate has been on a downward trajectory since 1980, with one recent study finding “no lasting or statistically significant effects” of the introduction of no-fault divorce on separation rates. “People are being convinced that if you make divorce harder, people will just work harder at their marriages and that’ll make it work. Historically, that’s not accurate,” explains Texan divorce lawyer Rhea Stevens. Prior to the introduction of no-fault divorce, divorces were only granted if parties could prove “fault” in the marriage, like adultery or abuse. This burden of proof could be uncomfortably high – in Illinois, for instance, a witness had to observe a husband hit his wife twice in order to qualify for divorce on the grounds of cruelty. In some cases, couples who got along fine but wanted to separate regardless had to collude with each other to stage fake affairs or even hire sham mistresses to take the stand in court. “That was so widespread, and it was disliked by courts and by parties,” explains Laura Oren, professor emerita of law at University of Houston. “It was sordid and unnecessarily uncomfortable.” Those who couldn’t drum-up false pretences for divorce simply fled to a more permissive state in what became known as “migratory divorce”, creating a bureaucratic nightmare in which you might be divorced in one state but remain married in another. So why is it now back up for debate? “The Heritage Foundation, the influential right-wing think-tank that created Project 2025, the blueprint that the Trump administration seems to have taken much inspiration from, is all in on ending no-fault divorce,” explains Emily Martin, the chief programme officer at the National Women’s Law Centre, a US non-profit that fights for gender justice. In 2026, the Heritage Foundation published the “Saving America by Saving the Family” report, which attacked no-fault divorce and even blamed the media for messages “especially directed at women” that “often reframe divorce as a path to self-fulfillment”. Martin adds: “Likely guided by Project 2025, conservative lawmakers in many states are seeking to eliminate no-fault divorce – in recent years we have seen such efforts in Texas and Iowa, for example.” Experts warn that rolling back no-fault divorce will only hurt women. “When women need to leave a marriage, no-fault divorce allows them to do so without the burden of proving their partner’s misconduct through a costly, adversarial and lengthy legal process,” Martin says. “But no-fault divorce is most important in cases of abuse, where barriers to ending a marriage can actually endanger women’s lives.” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has expressed disdain for no-fault divorces (Photo: Finn Gomez/Getty) According to research, there was an 8-16 per cent decrease in female suicides after states introduced no-fault divorce and a 10 per cent drop in women killed by their partners. No wonder that the National Organisation for Women states “it is not an over-exaggeration to say that no-fault divorce saves women’s lives”. Stevens also argues that such a rollback would also be disproportionately “devastating to lower socio-economic classes”. Those “with money will travel to a different country or travel to a state that allows it”, she explains. “It will be not unlike a regressive tax.” But for religious conservatives and advocates of so-called traditional family values, marriage is a sacred act. Energised by Donald Trump’s second White House term and the presence of militant Christians like US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in his administration, they are mobilising to defend marriage by attempting to roll back no-fault divorce. That’s despite the fact the current President has been divorced twice and has been accused repeatedly of sexual misconduct and extramarital affairs, including cheating on his current wife with the adult film star Stormy Daniels, which he has denied. Even Trump’s own administration has been beset by rumours of infidelity, including an alleged affair between now-ex Department of Homeland Security director Kristi Noem and her acting chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski (which they have both denied), while Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales is now the subject of a misconduct investigation after admitting to an affair with a former aide. Given all this, you could describe the movement to end no-fault divorce as hypocrisy of the highest order, but it all goes hand in hand with the White House’s pronatalist agenda, which has already seen it temporarily defund abortion providers Planned Parenthood. “While the Trump administration may claim to be deeply concerned about declining fertility rates, what it is really concerned about is control,” Martin explains. “The rise of women’s freedom, economic security and political power fuels our economy and makes this country great – but it also threatens men who view women’s progress as a challenge to their authority.” So how likely is it that the conservative campaign to end no-fault divorce will succeed? Stevens thinks that Texas, with its Republican governor, senate and house of representatives, might be the first domino to fall. Oren disagrees: “People have a real vested interest now in being able to get divorced. I can’t see that disappearing.” But, she adds, if a state like Texas ends no-fault divorce, the issue could very well land in front of the Supreme Court as a constitutional matter – the same right-leaning court that overturned Roe v Wade and paved the way for conservative states to ban or severely restrict abortion access. Despite what conservative critics of no-fault divorce believe, making divorce harder won’t save any American marriages – it’ll simply trap people in unhappy ones. Stevens says that by the time she sees couples in her office, they’ll often have made up their mind to divorce. “If we want to help people stay married, then we need to find ways to give them support throughout – fixing financial issues, childcare or spousal leave for pregnancies,” she says. “If we want to save relationships, we need to start before they’re broken.” If Maga wants women to stay married, it should think about producing better husbands – or at least better conditions under which marriage can thrive.