Antiquated divorce laws can aid domestic abusers and make victims vulnerable.
Virginia state law required a couple to wait a year for divorce. The former lieutenant governor of Virginia, in early 2026, shot himself and his wife after he lost their divorce in court.
Many conservative politicians don’t want to modernize the country’s divorce laws, according to the news outlets Oklahoma Voice and Stateline. Many of them want to dismantle so-called “no-fault divorces.”
They allow one spouse to seek a divorce without the other person committing a wrong like adultery or abuse. You can leave because the relationship simply isn’t working. Bills in other states would kill no-fault divorce or at least make it harder to obtain.
Proponents of doing away with no-fault divorces want a return to family values instead. Some conservatives are pushing to make divorce harder in general.
Conservative Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt wanted in on the trend. He complained in 2024 that fewer people were getting married. He said strong marriages were important to promote.
There are also more divorces in Oklahoma than almost anywhere else in America.
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Blue
California was the first state in 1969 to grant modernized, no-fault divorces. Ironically, the very blue state of New York was the last.
The governor of California at the time in 1969 was Republican Ronald Reagan, who later became president of the United States. Reagan had been divorced himself.
Oklahoma, meanwhile, since then headed in the other direction. State Sen. Dusty Deevers, a Republican and church pastor, filed a state bill in 2024 to abolish no-fault divorces. Deevers said he wanted offenders to be publicly shamed.
Paradox
Ironically, the nation outside of Oklahoma has steadily divorced less and less for decades. The states with the highest rates of divorce tend to be led by Republicans with the exception of Nevada.
One expert in marriage and divorce from Bowling Green State University said that state laws aren’t the most effective way to lower and raise the number of divorces in America.
Religious and politically conservative areas tend to see higher divorce rates, according to her research.
“That feels like a paradox,” she said.
She said the people in such areas are often marrying at younger ages. That’s a predictor of divorce.
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Faster
States are considering other reforms of their marriage laws.
Some states are making it easier for couples to divorce. Maryland, for example, moved to a purely no-fault divorce system in 2023.
A new divorce law in Virginia includes an option for speeding up the divorce process.
And Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe in April signed a new law clarifying that pregnancy cannot be used to block a divorce.
Abolish
A Republican state senator from Oklahoma, Dusty Deevers, pastor of a Baptist church, proposed a bill in 2024 that would have stopped married couples from divorcing for the reason of incompatibility.
In other words, it would abolish no-fault divorce.
Family law expert Nikki Edwards told Stateline that the bill would require those seeking to end a marriage to prove clear and convincing evidence for terminating the marriage.
Fit to print
Joe Norwood’s successes in both civil and criminal law have been publicized by news organizations nationwide.
So stay here to get smart.
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Choices
The U.S. Census Bureau in 2025 announced that Oklahoma had a significantly higher rate of divorce than most states.
But divorcing has become less common in states outside of Oklahoma.
Why? It’s expensive to get married and expensive to get divorced. Others don’t want to repeat the choices of their parents. Others are waiting until they’re older to get married.
Meanwhile, there’s an ongoing phenomenon known as “gray divorces” that have risen dramatically and involved older Americans terminating their marriages.
The divorce challenges for older couples can be greater if these kinds of assets are involved:
- Homes
- Retirement accounts
- Investment and stock portfolios
- Business interests
Critics
There are other facets of Oklahoma’s marriage laws that would seem to raise eyebrows.
For example, it took considerable effort in 2026 to get a bill passed that required people to be 18 before getting married. Critics said that under the previous law, Oklahoma was saying that child marriage was okay.
Even then, dozens of Oklahoma lawmakers voted against the new age requirement for marriage. They said the law wasn’t actually intended to fight pedophilia. Others gave religious reasons or complained about overregulation. No state senators voted against it.
Victory
Joe Norwood’s record says it all.
He’s won against foreign manufacturers. He’s won against the government over wrongful convictions. He’s won against banking interests and insurance companies.
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Joseph M. Norwood is a Tulsa attorney with the courtroom expertise you need. Contact his office at 918-582-6464.
By G.W. Schulz