Divorce becomes next battleground as states debate family values

Cerina Fairfax, a Virginia dentist, spent nearly two years trapped in the same house as the husband she was trying to divorce because state law required a one-year waiting period for couples with children, a wait her husband allegedly worked to extend further.

In March a judge granted her sole custody and ordered him out; weeks later, days before the move-out deadline, police say he shot her and himself while their teenagers were in the house.

The killing has drawn attention to a quiet campaign among conservative lawmakers and party platforms in states like Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Carolina to limit or abolish no-fault divorce, reversing a decades-long national trend toward easier exits from marriage.

Researchers note that divorce rates are already declining nationwide and are highest in several Republican-led states, and that state law changes have historically done little to move the numbers either way.

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