GOP Lawmaker Says Divorce Makes Teenage Girls 'Promiscuous'

Seven Iowa House Republicans are pushing a bill that would prohibit parents of minor children from getting a “no fault” divorce because it’s common knowledge that divorce turns teenage girls into sluts.

From Radio Iowa:

Representative [Tedd] Gassman said the issue is “near and dear” to his heart because his daughter and son-in-law recently divorced, putting his granddaughter at risk.

“There’s a 16-year-old girl in this whole mix now. Guess what? What are the possibilities of her being more promiscuous?” Gassman said. “What are the possibilities of all these other things surrounding her life that a 16-year-old girl, with hormones raging, can get herself into?”

All 50 states have “no-fault” laws that let couples divorce without citing evidence of wrongdoing from either spouse; Iowa became the second state in the nation to adopt its own in 1970. The legislature has way more important issues to tackle than turning back the clock, especially since forcing adults to stay together if one or both of them doesn’t want to is a horrible plan, given that people don’t always feel comfortable going on the record about what’s really happening at home.

“One of the things that we’ve seen with places where there is fault divorce is it escalates tension and conflict between the two individuals,” said Rachel Scott of the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Democratic Rep. Marti Anderson said the tension in her childhood home lasted eight years because her parents had to prove fault to get divorced. “The stay-together time was very, very damaging to my family,” said Anderson. “Although we’re all adults now, I’m not sure any of us have ever really gotten past that.”

But Gassman wants a bedtime story with a happily-ever-after ending:

“This basically is an attempt on my part to keep fathers in the home,” Gassman said. “I sincerely believe that the family is the foundation of this nation and this nation will go the direction of our families. If our families break up, so will this nation.”