In 1978 the Wisconsin State legislature joined the politically and culturally popular rush to enthrone adult happiness through abolishing fault-based divorce and adopting what is commonly referred to as “no-fault divorce.” And thus we embarked on a social experiment that has wreaked havoc in Wisconsin's families and therefore in the state in general. The experiment made some major assumptions: that adults deserve to be happy, that unhappily married couples aren't able to be the parents they want and need to be, that children care that their parents are happy, and that children would be better off with happier parents who weren't married. The assumptions were all wrong and all of us have paid a high price, especially our children.

Under the no-fault divorce law, spouses are not required to prove that one of the two is responsible for the breakdown of the marriage by such actions as adultery, alcoholism, or abuse. Couples only have to affirm under oath or affirmation that there is an “irretrievable breakdown” of the marriage. When this statement is made, the Wisconsin Statutes state that “the court, after hearing, shall make a finding that the marital relationship is broken.” Wisconsin is also a unilateral divorce state. Therefore, to obtain a divorce in this state, only one spouse needs to consent to the dissolution of the marriage.

Statistics demonstrate that after the widespread enactment of no-fault divorce laws in the 1970’s, the divorce rate increased and that the increase is attributable to the enactment of these “adult-happiness” laws. In Wisconsin, between 1950 and 1978, the divorce rate was never higher than 2 divorces for every 1000 people. Between 1978 and the mid-1990s, Wisconsin's divorce rate increased to nearly 4 divorces for every 1000 people.

Each year in Wisconsin roughly 53 percent of the couples who divorce have children under the age of 18. This leads to a logical conclusion: the increased divorce rate from our current divorce law has lead to and continues to lead to more and more children living in broken homes.

So what are the effects on children living in single-parent and mixed-family homes? Research suggests that children who are exposed to no-fault divorce states as a child are, on average, less likely to graduate from high school or complete a college degree when compared to children who are not exposed to no-fault divorce laws, even when controlling for social-economic factors between states. Because parental divorce has a significant and long-term negative impact on a child’s educational attainment, children of divorce face ongoing challenges in socio-economic development stemming directly from reduced educational attainment.

Research also shows a correlation between the enactment of unilateral divorce laws and the suicide rate among adolescents. After controlling for state-fixed effects, a 2004 study found that those who had been exposed to a unilateral divorce as a child had, on average, a higher likelihood of committing suicide when compared to those who were not exposed to such states as children. The increase was about 10 percent for women and 5 percent for men, just from living in a state with unilateral or no-fault divorce laws.

Social science data also show us that boys reared in single-parent families are more likely than their peers from intact families to engage in delinquent and criminal behavior. Even after controlling for factors such as race, mother’s education, neighborhood quality and education, studies show that boys reared in single-parent homes are about twice as likely to have committed a crime that leads to incarceration by the time they reach their early thirties. That’s alarming, but it gets worse. The same studies show that boys reared in step-families or mixed family homes are two and a half times as likely to have committed a crime that leads to incarceration during the same time frame.

We could go on and on with these significant statistics—and even show that children reared in a no-fault divorce state are more likely themselves to get a divorce than those who grew up in a state that did not have no-fault divorce, thus helping to ensure that the next generation also has a high divorce rate.

Here's the truth: no one deserves to be happy, children should not have to suffer to make their parents happy, and children do suffer when their married mothers and fathers divorce to find their so-called “happiness.” We believe it's time to stop sacrificing our children on the altar of adult desires. It's time to restore a culture of marriage in this great state.

This is Julaine Appling for The Family Research Institute of Wisconsin reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”