Carrie Grace Henderson/Manship School News Service
The Louisiana House of Representatives Tuesday defeated 44-52 a bill to shorten waiting periods for couples seeking a no-fault divorce. Opponents warned it would undercut reconciliation efforts.
Married couples in Louisiana seeking a divorce would have been able to shorten their “cooling off period” to six months from a full year, provided they seek pre-divorce counseling, but a majority of the chamber, citing the effect divorces have on children, weren’t persuaded.
Rep. Patrick Jefferson, D-Homer, originally proposed shortening waiting periods to the same time period as those in childless marriages, but Rep. Chris Broadwater, R-Hammond, said “If you have some desire to have a shorter time period, at least make some effort to try and reconcile.”
Broadwater amended HB136 to require pre-divorce counseling for couples who wanted to be divorced more quickly. Broadwater’s amendment passed without objection.
“I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent counseling,” said. Rep. Rick Edmonds, R-Baton Rouge, a pastor who opposed the bill, “I had no magical formula. I don’t have one today, but because many of them agreed to come back to counseling time and again, they reconciled their homes.”
These waiting periods would not have applied to couples seeking divorce for domestic abuse, adultery or other for cause cases. In such cases, divorces can be processed as quickly as two weeks.
“If a divorce is being pursued because of abuse or abandonment, it’s already taken care of,” Rep. Beryl Amedée, R-Houma, argued. “This only applies to cases where the couple just doesn’t like each other anymore. What is another six months?”
In defense of his bill, Jefferson pointed to the shorter waiting times in contiguous Southern states. While Texas and Arkansas have only 60-day waiting periods and Mississippi has a 20-day period, all have seen divorce rates fall, he said, while Louisiana rates “continue to skyrocket.”
But opponents countered with research undertaken at the University of Minnesota by William Doherty which advocated for year-long wait times to help save marriages.
“Our ultimate goal is to see those marriages continue” Broadwater said. “Not because they are a contract in our law, but because it is a relationship ordained by God.”