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"Divorce laws all vary from state to state, but in general, all of them have some form of a &amp;quot;no fault&amp;quot; option. A new bill being proposed to the Alabama state legistlature will set up required conditions and mandatory counseling for all those seeking divorce. The new &amp;quot;Covenant Marriage&amp;quot; act is sponsored by Republican Sen. Phil Williams to address the high divorce rate in the state (Alabama has the fourth-highest divorce rate in the country). The bill will limit the number of reasons a couple can seek a divorce to things like adultery, abuse, abandonment, or separation of two years or more. In addition, the bill would require mandatory couples counseling both before marriage and when a divorce is filed. Carol Gundlach from The Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence had some serious misgivings about portions of the bill, stating: &amp;quot;We would really support legislation that required counseling and a waiting period prior to entering marriage, but doing it on the back end is almost always going to increase barriers to victims trying to get out of a relationship.&amp;quot; The bill has since been amended to specify that victims of domestic violence would not have to attend counseling with their abuser before seeking a divorce, or be required to continue to live in the same household, which is a definite improvement. I&amp;#039;m not sure how I feel about this bill. Parts of it are smart - specifically the counseling before marriage and also during the divorce. Counseling doesn&amp;#039;t have to be about finding a way to make it work no matter what - it can also be about finding a way to split up without tearing each other, your family, or your kids to pieces emotionally. I think that could be a very good thing for a lot of couples. My biggest issue with this bill is removing the &amp;quot;no fault&amp;quot; option - thereby turning the divorce into a contentious, finger-pointing process when the couple may have been trying to avoid that. What do you think? Is the &amp;quot;Covenant Marriage&amp;quot; bill a good idea? Or an idea that makes a difficult time just that much harder? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a46969/alabama-to-make-divorce-harder/>