Free Republic

The Philippines took its closest step yet to legalizing divorce this week, despite opposition from President Rodrigo Duterte and religious groups. The country’s lower house of Congress voted Monday to pass a bill allowing couples to dissolve “irreparable marriages” and remarry, with 134 lawmakers voting for and 57 against, with two abstentions, Reuters reports. The only other country where divorce is illegal is the Vatican City. Congresswoman Emmi de Jesus said the bill sought to address the “clamour of women trapped in abusive relationships,” the BBC reports. The bill, which passed with support across the political aisle, offers Filipinos a...

SPOKANE, Wash. -- A Spokane woman trying to divorce her estranged husband two years after he was jailed for beating her has been told by a judge she can't get out of the marriage while she's pregnant. The case pits a first-year attorney who argues that state law allows any couple to divorce if neither spouse challenges it against a longtime family law judge who asserts that the rights of the unborn child in this type of case trump a woman's right to divorce. "There's a lot of case law that says it is important in this state that children...