Louisiana Ponders Divorce Barrier Legislators Consider Stringent ‘Covenant Marriage’

Go down to the courthouse someday soon for a marriage license, and the clerk may well ask, “Regular or high-test?”

Lawmakers are on the verge of making Louisiana the first state to offer “covenant marriage” - an optional marriage contract that requires premarital counseling and all but eliminates the possibility of an easy, no-fault divorce.

“It is a marriage contract that has weight,” said Rep. Tony Perkins. The Baton Rouge Republican is a leader of the Legislature’s Christian right and author of the bill, which stands a good chance of reaching the governor’s desk by Monday.

He and fellow conservatives see it is a possible antidote to societal ills caused by the disintegration of the family.

“It really is a Trojan horse,” countered Martha Kegel of the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Kegel fears many couples who opt for the tighter marriage will find themselves subject to “a lot of misery from which they will not be able to get free.”

To get out of a covenant marriage, a spouse would have to prove physical or sexual abuse, abandonment, adultery or “habitual intemperance, excesses, cruel treatment or outrages.” Also being debated is a no-fault divorce if the couple has lived apart for three years.

Covenant marriages would be a big shift from no-fault laws that do not require a showing of wrongdoing and allow divorce on the grounds the marriage has simply broken down. Such laws exist in every state, with pro-family groups claiming they contributed to a sharp rise in divorce since the late 1960s.

Several states are trying to require premarital counseling or make contested marriages more difficult. In Louisiana now, one spouse can move out and file for divorce, even if the other doesn’t want to split. Six months later, the marriage is over.