Divorce reform proposals introduced

  The founder of Marriage Savers said divorce laws need to change in this country. He said nearly 40 million children in the U.S. have been victims of divorce, and 80% of spouses in divorce cases did not want to agree to the split. Therefore, Mike McManus has helped create a new Web site, ReformDivorce.org, to encourage victims of divorce.
  He said part of the problem is that a marriage is entered into willingly by two people but can be terminated by only one person acting unilaterally. “Virtually every state in the country has a no-fault divorce law,” said McManus, “and what this has done is alarmingly increase the numbers of people getting divorced.”
  McManus has also proposed two reforms for divorce law to be forwarded to legislatures for lobbying by constituents. “The first reform is to say in cases where there are children and no major fault is alleged, then the divorce would only be granted by mutual consent,” explained McManus.
  The other reform is to replace sole custody, which often limits a parent’s access to his children to a day or two a month. Instead, divorced parents will be given joint custody or shared parenting, requiring access to the children for at least one-third of every week. This reform has previously passed in six states and five of them saw some of the largest drops in divorce rates in the country.
  “A million children see their parents divorce every year … and what we’re proposing is two reforms that could cut the numbers of children who see their parents divorce in half, saving 500,000 children [a year] from that tragedy,” McManus said.
  www.onenewsnow.com, 5/2/08