REAL Women of Canada believes the law, once intended to protect marriage and families, should continue to do so, not by offering the easy solution of ready divorce to an ailing marriage, but rather by prescribing improved health through supportive legislation.  The real tragedy lies not so much in the fact that some marriages fail, but in that so little is done to help those that could survive.

      Studies in the United States indicate that higher divorce rates have been observed in various states with the introduction of more permissive divorce laws.  This trend also occurred in Canada, with a 500% increase in divorce when the divorce law was first widened two decades ago.  In 1969, 19.3% of the dissolving marriages lasted twenty-five years or more, but in 1979, that percentage has dropped to 11.3%.

     Furthermore, it is well recognized that easy divorce laws help to enhance the social acceptance of divorce -- with all its traumatic consequences to spouses and children.  Women usually have the responsibility of raising the children alone, as well as subsisting on an often greatly reduced income contributing to the feminization of poverty.  Indeed, a 1985 U.S. study from Stanford University found that mothers and children averaged a 7.3% decline in their standard of living the first year after divorce, while menís income increased by 42%.  The difficulties arising from this often spill over into the community and society.  In Canada, 48% of divorcing couples have dependent children.  A total of approximately 30,000 children are involved in divorce each year.  Significantly, there is no convincing data in families where certain marital conflicts exist, that the children are more adversely affected by the conflict than by a separation and divorce.  Moreover, a growing body of evidence indicated the children of divorced parents, regardless of their age at the time of the separation of divorce, suffer lasting psychological effects even years after the divorce.  This frequently takes the form of post-adolescent fears of commitment and/or betrayal.

     The attitude and approach toward lasting marriage, with its crucial values of commitment and permanence, have been severely undermined by permissive legislation, as it serves to make divorce an easy, attractive alternative to working through the problems.  Instead of promoting easy divorce legislation, it is imperative that aid be given to distressed marriages before breakdown, by way of tax-deductible, subsidized marriage counseling.