New Campaign to Reform Divorce - 4/16/08

[Smartmarriages]

 Contact: Mike McManus, Director, 301 469-5870, 301-910-9311 cell

POTOMAC, Maryland, April 15  -- Marriage Savers, which has worked with
10,000 clergy in 222 cities to cut divorce rates, announces the creation of
www.ReformDivorce.org website to motivate those hurt by divorce - to fight
for two Divorce Reforms that could slash America's divorce rate in half.

"There are 30 million adult children of divorce who were shattered by their
parents divorce, and another 24 million who suffered a divorce they did not
want. Most view divorce as a personal issue, but in a larger sense No Fault
Divorce, a law first signed in California in 1969 by then Gov. Ronald
Reagan, has been the biggest killer of marriage in America. It swept the
nation in the 1970s, pushing divorces up from 708,000 in 1970 to 1,036,000
five years later.

"The major reason why America has the world's highest divorce rate is that
one spouse can unilaterally divorce another," says Mike McManus, President
and Co-Founder of Marriage Savers with his wife, Harriet. "Research reports
that in four out of five cases, one spouse did not want the divorce, but had
no choice. No-Fault Divorce should be called Unilateral Divorce. "

However, there are two reforms which state legislatures could pass that
could spare 500,000 kids a year from seeing their parents divorce:

1.   Replace No Fault Divorce with Mutual Consent. In cases involving
children, and where no allegation is made of abuse, adultery, etc. -- states
could require that any divorce be agreed to by both husband and wife. What
was entered into by two people willingly would not be terminated unless both
agree. This reform would reduce divorce rates by 30%, estimates John Crouch,
Director of Americans for Divorce Reform.

2.   Replace Sole Custody with Joint Custody or Shared Parenting in which
both parents would have access to their children about a third of each week.
Of six states which passed the strongest Joint Custody laws, five also
enjoyed the largest drop in the divorce rate: Montana, Kansas, Connecticut,
Idaho and Alaska. Why? "If a parent knows they will have to interact with
the other child's parents while the child is growing up, there is less
incentive to divorce," says David L. Levy, CEO of Children's Rights Council.
He and Crouch estimate this reform could cut divorce by another 20%.

Marriage Savers hopes its new website, ReformDivorce.org, will mobilize
thousands of those harmed by divorce to become activists, urging their state
legislatures to pass these reforms that could prevent 500,000 children a
year from the shattering experience of watching their parents divorce.

Michael J. McManus
Marriage Savers
www.marriagesavers.org

######################
Send submissions and comments for the listserv to: diane at smartmarriages.com
Do NOT hit "reply". If you hit reply your email will disappear into
cyberspace.  

This is a moderated list. Submissions and comments are read by Diane Sollee,
editor. Please indicate if your comment is NOT to be shared with the list.
PLEASE include your email address and/or url as part of your signature.

With thousands of subscribers, not all comments can be shared. Also realize
that opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by members of the
Coalition.

To SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, or Change your subscription address,
visit: http://www.smartmarriages.com/app/Newsletter.Subscribe

To read past posts to the listserv, visit the Archive at:
http://lists101.his.com/pipermail/smartmarriages/

12th Annual Smart Marriages® Conference, Hilton San Francisco Hotel,
June 30-July 6, 2008  (General Conference July 2-5)
Pre-Conference Training Institutes June 30-July 2
Post-Conference Training Institutes July 6
DOWNLOAD a conference brochure and register at:
http://www.smartmarriages.com/download.brochure.html

List your program and resources on the Directory of Classes at
http://www.smartmarriages.com/directory_browse.html

Order conference audio & video CD/DVD/MP3s: 800-241-7785 or
http://www.iPlaybackSmartMarriages.com

Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education, LLC (CMFCE)
Diane Sollee, Director
5310 Belt Rd NW, Washington, DC 20015-1961
http://www.smartmarriages.com
202-362-3332

FAIR USE NOTICE: This e-newsletter/site contains copyrighted material the
use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. We make such material available in our efforts to advance
understanding of marriage, family, couples, divorce, legislation, family
breakdown, etc. We understand this constitutes a 'fair use' of such material
as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed
without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational purposes. For more
information: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to
use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go
beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.