Minnesota pushes for covenant marriage proposal

Item from the Smart Marriages Archive, reproduced in the Divorce Statistics Collectio n

Wednesday, January 5, 2000 Star Tribune

Lawmakers to push covenant marriage proposal

By ASHLEY H. GRANT / Associated Press Writer

ST. PAUL (AP) -- Want to stay married? Make it harder to get divorced.

That' s the message from some lawmakers who said Wednesday they would
push a " covenant marriage" bill again this session to give couples the
option of making an extra commitment.

" The bottom line is, we' re interested in happy couples, " said Rep.
Elaine Harder, R-Jackson.

Among the measures couples would agree to would be 12 hours of premarital
counseling and a two-year waiting period between the time they decided to
divorce and the time they did so in most cases. In exchange, they would
get a $50 break on the cost of their marriage license -- from $70 to $20.

Sen. Steve Dille, R-Dassel, said the saved money could go toward
premarital counseling, which usually costs about $100.

Spouses still would be able to immediately dissolve a marriage if their
partner committed adultery, abuse, abandonment for at least a year or was
convicted of a felony.

Covenant marriage would be an option, but not mandatory, under the
proposal. Couples still could opt for the standard, no-fault divorce
contract.

The covenant marriage idea was borrowed from Louisiana, where it is a new
cause among groups that want to lower the nation' s 50-percent divorce
rate. But there is some question as to how many people would choose the
option, anyway. In Louisiana, only 3 percent have.

Covenant marriage bills cropped up in 17 state legislatures last year,
including Minnesota' s. Arizona was the only state that adopted one.

Supporters, including conservative religious groups, say covenant
marriages can help prevent some divorces by slowing down a process that
now proceeds too fast and too often.

Opponents and skeptics, including feminists, say there' s no evidence
that making divorce harder saves marriages, and that in fact covenant
marriage laws can backfire and make some divorces messier.

A similar proposal by Dille was tabled last year in the Senate
subcommittee on family law. It was on the floor of the House when the
session ended.

Opposition in the Legislature may give the bill a bumpy road.

Sen. Richard Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, said it is difficult for the
Legislature to interfere with what takes place between a married couple.

Bill Doherty, a University of Minnesota professor of family social
science and family therapist who supports the covenant marriage bill,
said strong families mean fewer people on welfare and other government
programs.

" The state has a clear interest in successful marriages, " he said.

Doherty conceded that some divorces are warranted, but said many are
impulsive decisions that people later regret.

Doherty cited a 1998 poll of Minnesotans for the nonprofit Minnesota
Family Institute in which 66 percent of divorced respondents said they
wished they and their ex-spouses had tried harder to work through their
differences.

Minnesota law now encourages couples to mediate rather than litigate
divorces, but it is not required.

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