Missouri’s ban on pregnant women divorcing creates a ‘perfect storm’ for reproductive abuse

Ashley Aune had been serving in the Missouri state legislature for a little over a year when she learned a surprising legal fact.

According to a law enacted in 1973, no person in Missouri may finalise a divorce while pregnant – even if they are being abused by their spouse.

«I was floored that this was still on the books,» the 38-year-old Democrat legislator, tells The Independent.

Missouri is not alone. Arizona, Arkansas, and Texas all have similar bans, according to Newsweek. In seven other states, including Hawaii, Maine, and Delaware, judges are unlikely to grant divorces where one spouse is pregnant.

Nor do such laws only exist in red states. Democrat-dominated California denies a final divorce if one spouse is pregnant, according to reports and Golden State women’s rights groups.

For some people, this might simply be an inconvenience: one more hurdle on the already exhausting legal obstacle course required to break up a marriage.

But reproductive rights advocates and anti-abuse organisations tell The Independent that such laws pose a grave danger to women – and anyone else with a uterus – attempting to flee abusive marriages.

That is especially true in states such as Missouri that have imposed strict restrictions or near-bans on abortion following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade.

«In our state, when you’re able to keep a woman pregnant, you’re able to keep her married,» says Aune, who is now attempting to overturn the “antiquated” law through the state legislature. «And that is a really scary proposition in 2024.»

When Fox 4 Kansas City reported on Aune’s bill last week, it quickly went viral. Readers largely had no idea that pregnancy could interfere with divorce, and expressed surprise that such