Item from the Smart Marriages Archive, reproduced in the Divorce Statistics Collection

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January 25, 1999

Rocky Mt News

January 22, 1999

Arrangement would require counseling with goal of lowering number of
divorces

By Dan Luzadder News Capitol Bureau

The sponsor of a bill that would make it harder for some couples to
divorce decided to make some changes to the measure following three hours
of testimony Thursday.

"For one thing, I wasn't sure I had the votes," Rep. Mark Paschall,
R-Arvada, said when he pulled the bill before the House Judiciary
Committee could vote Thursday. "But also, there were some very good
things brought up during the hearing which need to be considered."

Witnesses were split evenly on "covenant marriages," a voluntary option
which would allow a unilateral divorce only in cases of infidelity, drug
or alcohol abuse, sexual or physical abuse or abuse of a child. Couples
would have to agree to premarital counseling and, if things went wrong,
to marital counseling before divorce.

But some counselors, while lauding the bill for requiring counseling,
worried about provisions that could force marriage counseling even when
there is clear evidence of abuse.

"I think forcing a (woman) to sit down in counseling when she has been
beaten by her husband is the wrong approach," said James Thomas,
president-elect of the Colorado Coalition of Marriage and Family
Therapists.

"Perpetrators have incredible power over victims."

Both Thomas and GeorgeAnna Chapman, of the Colorado Coalition Against
Domestic Violence, warned re-establishing a fault-based divorce system
might make it harder for battered women to escape abusive marriages.

"This could lead to more conflicts if you have to prove fault," Thomas
said, "which could also adversely affect children."

Paschall also agreed to work on a request by House Speaker Russ George,
R-Rifle, to include emotional abuse.

Paschall's star witness was Louisiana Republican state Rep. Tony Perkins,
the author of a similar measure which passed in that state two years ago.

He testified that the bill could address the problems that stem from
divorce, particularly for children who grow up in homes without fathers,
and the problems for society that arise from that.

"Forty percent of children in this country go home at night to a house
that has no father in it," he said. "Research shows that broken families
are at the heart of the problems society is having today."

Perkins said so far about 3 percent of the marriages performed in the
state have been covenant marriages.

"To my knowledge, we have had no divorces in any of these," he said.
"There have been two that I am aware of that have gone to counseling, and
are still intact.

"This kind of legislation allows (fathers) to tie themselves to the mast
of commitment until they are past the stormy waters."

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