Policy Unpacked: Can You Get Divorced When Pregnant?

An old 1973 law in Missouri has hit headlines again because a legislator wants to change it - but this is a United States-wide issue.

I asked AI to generate an image showing a pregnant-women friendly legal system. I like to imagine that these women are the new Supreme Court.

Another week, another archaic law has surfaced. As if there aren’t enough examples of how women are second class citizens in the United States, Missouri found itself in the headlines last week for its ban on divorce for pregnant women.

This prohibition is rooted in a 1973 law which asks “whether the wife is pregnant” as one of eight questions required to be answered during divorce proceedings. In practice, this means judges do not finalise a divorce during pregnancy without exception, even in situations of domestic violence. Though it’s been around for 50 years, the law is back in the spotlight because Missouri State Representative Ashley Aune introduced a new bill that will modify it, guaranteeing that judges cannot block divorce or separation proceedings on the grounds of pregnancy.

The original law wasn’t entirely ill-intentioned when it passed in the ‘70s. It was designed so that the issue of child support would be automatically included as part of the divorce proceedings without the mother having to sue separately for paternity. At that point, DNA testing had not yet been invented (that would be 1983) making blood testing the most scientifically reliable method for determining paternity. However, this meant the parents had to wait for childbirth to do the necessary test to establish (or at least make an educated guess at) paternity.

But despite its helpful intentions, this law has been used maliciously. A domestic violence organisation in Kansas City shared that one man tracked his wife’s ovulation cycle to ensure she was constantly pregnant and thus unable to leave him.