Missouri is attempting to overturn divorce law for pregnant women as Democratic state legislator Ashley Aune argues ‘it just doesn’t make sense in 2024’

A Missouri lawmaker has rejected the state’s “archaic” law banning women from divorce while pregnant.

A 1973 state law makes it illegal for a judge to finalize a divorce while a woman is carrying a fetus. The law aims to ensure that issues such as custody and child support are decided before the couple completely separates.

But Rep. Ashley Aune, a Democrat who represents Platte County, said the law, which has no exceptions for domestic violence, “simply doesn’t make sense in 2024.”

The state legislature has introduced a new bill saying pregnancy cannot prevent a divorce or separation from being finalized after its constituents said it was a “major problem.”

“I just want mothers in difficult situations to get out of it if necessary,” Aune said FOX 4.

But state Rep. Ashley Aune (pictured) has blasted the state’s “archaic” law, which has no exceptions for domestic violence. Sand says it “just doesn’t make sense in 2024.”

Aune agreed that the more than 50-year-old law was created with good intentions to ensure Missouri’s children are properly cared for, but said it needs to be updated to reflect modern families.

At a committee hearing earlier this month, the Democrat detailed the testimony of a woman who was “physically and emotionally abused” and, after learning she was pregnant, asked an attorney if she could pursue a divorce.

“She was basically told no,” Aune said of the woman. “It was so demoralizing for her to hear that. She felt like she had no choice.”

The lawmaker added that there was “coercion of reproduction” in the woman’s relationship, which she claims “many women” are victims of.

Aune, in a radio interview with KCUR On Monday, it said reproductive coercion “can look many different ways,” but often involves “preventing reproductive care,” “preventing access to contraception,” and “keeping a partner pregnant.”

She claimed that women who have escaped situations of domestic violence are going to shelters with “four, six, eight children” as a result of this practice, claiming that the facilities are “basically building new housing to accommodate these large families.”

A report from the Department of Health and Senior Services found that nearly 5 percent, about 500 of 10,098 women surveyed between 2007-2014, disclosed that they had been abused before or during their pregnancy.

Noting that the divorce ban affects both men and women, Aune claimed she had heard testimony from “both sexes” claiming the law had kept them “in a marriage they didn’t want to be in.”

She added, “Imagine a situation where a man wants a divorce and the woman doesn’t want that to happen, so she gets pregnant on purpose, right? Maybe she doesn’t communicate about her own birth control problems. This is something that happens to both parties.”

Aune (not pictured) also argued that in a state that has effectively banned all abortions, including in cases of rape or incest, it is “important” that women have the option to leave an unwanted marriage. Pictured: Pro-choice advocates at the start of the Missourians for Constitutionals Freedom petition drive on February 6

Senators in Missouri voted earlier this month against changing the state’s strict law against abortions to allow exceptions in cases of rape and incest. The state banned nearly all abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Abortions are currently only legal ‘in the event of a medical emergency’. Pictured: Activists at the start of the Missourians for Constitutionals Freedom petition drive on February 6

Aune also argued that in a state that has effectively banned all abortions, including in cases of rape or incest, it is “important” that women have the option to leave an unwanted marriage.

“In a state where we are currently forcing women to carry babies to term, I think it’s important that … women who are in that position and who also want to leave a marriage have the capacity to do so,” she shared earlier to the newspaper. Kansas City star.

Senators in Missouri voted earlier this month against changing the state’s strict law against abortions to allow exceptions in cases of rape and incest.

The state banned nearly all abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Abortions are currently only legal ‘in the event of a medical emergency’.

Democratic state Sen. Tracy McCreery sought to add amendments to allow exceptions for abortion in cases of rape and incest to a Republican-sponsored bill that would continue to prevent taxpayer money from going to Planned Parenthood.

Both of McCreery’s amendments were voted down along party lines in the Republican-led Senate, and debate on the underlying bill broke down before the final vote on February 7.

Aune’s bill to overturn the divorce ban, which the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence considers a “top priority,” is “still a work in progress,” FOX 4 reported.

Clearly, Aune is not optimistic that the proposed legislation will reach Governor Mike Parson’s desk this session.

Texas, Arizona and Kansas currently have similar divorce laws.