Local Politics

Virginia's General Assembly session is set to kick off Wednesday and oh what fun they will be having this year it seems. There are the usual stream of anti-choice bills which constantly get defeated and the usual stream of pro-choice bills that also constantly get defeated, i.e. insurance paying for birth control which would help prevent unwanted pregnancies therefore reducing the "demand" for abortions.

But I digress.

What has caught my eye this year is a bill The Family Foundation is proposing but don't yet have a sponsor for. It's a bill that would take Virginia's no-fault divorce and change it into one that requires mutual consent. Isn't that just super family focused?

What that means is both parties will be required to agree to the divorce instead of just one, which is what a no fault divorce is and what currently now stands in Virginia.

So, The Family Foundation, who notoriously spout they have only the interest of the children in mind, want a woman/man to stay with their spouse regardless of how much love and affection isn't present within the relationship. And how does this help to create and maintain healthy children exactly?

Oh yeah, because kids from single parent families tend to be hellions, single-handedly causing the crime rate to go up, suffering from not having the other parent around (especially the dad's as there hasn't been a whole lot of squawking about absent mothers) and all generalalities we can place on single parents.

Meanwhile, mom is getting beat by dad constantly or mom is so controlling, even dad is afraid to leave the house. If either party is the controlling/abusive type, does The Family Foundation honestly think they're going to "mutually consent" to a divorce?

Ah, no.

This then leaves the unhappy party stuck, literally and metaphorically. What The Family Foundation needs to do is read the thousands of articles/books/journals that have published the findings of research done on the effects divorce vs. "staying together for the kids" has on children and how really none of them is optimal, but breaking free from a beater is hella better than staying with one.