title:  If You’re A Domestic Violence Victim In Mississippi, You Can’t Get Divorced
text: Few states in this country can compete with Mississippi when it comes to enacting legislation which significantly constricts the rights and liberties of women,the LGBT community, minorities, and other marginalized groups.Most recently a state senate bill, 2418,  failed to incorporate domestic violence as a justifiable reason for divorce. The state currently allows only 12 justifiable reasons to legally grant a divorce including impotency, adultery, alcoholism, and incurable mental illness among some of the reasons.According to a 2014 report conducted by the Violence Policy Center, Mississippi ranks 5th in the nation in the rate of women murdered by men. In the United States, a woman is beaten or assaulted every 9 seconds. One in three women have been victims of severe physical violence from an intimate partner as some point in their lifetime. A gun being present during a domestic violence situation, where in Mississippi there is virtually no gun control, increases the likelihood of a homicide by 500 percent. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, domestic violence is the third leading cause of homelessness among families.Setting justifiable reasons to legally grant a divorce is already a ridiculous aspect, but rescinding domestic violence off the list of justifiable reasons gives the abusers in a relationship even more power to abuse and control their victim without any repercussions. Domestic violence is rarely an anomaly, rather it is a behavior pattern of an individual,   to establish power and control over another person through fear and intimidation, often including the threat or use of violence. Mississippi has caught a lot of negative publicity recently, in addition to North Carolina and other southern states, which have either passed or attempted to pass discriminatory laws against the LGBT community. Mississippi s GOP is disgraceful and they seem bent on trying to get away with passing as many unconstitutional laws as possible.Featured image courtesy of Flickr