A pig must have spread its wings and flew when I heard of a Louisiana Senate Bill with which I agreed.
Since Louisiana’s legislative session began in March, a multitude of disagreeable bills have been proposed — from the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act to controversial debates on the Common Core system.
Senate Bill 292, which sadly doesn’t have a catchier title, is not one of them.
The Louisiana Senate approved the bill, which makes domestic abuse grounds for an immediate divorce. It is now headed to the House. If passed, domestic violence will join adultery and conviction of a felony as grounds for immediate divorce in the state of Louisiana.
Louisiana is not a great state to live in if you’re a woman. Although domestic abuse can go both ways, male-on-female violence is almost always the case.
According to the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, our state constantly leads the country in domestic homicide rates. At one point, Louisiana had the highest number of female homicides committed by males – 81 percent of which were committed by a partner or ex-partner.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that women in college suffer from domestic abuse at especially high rates.
Last year, 51 percent of LSU’s population was female. If college women have a 1 in 5 chance of falling victim to domestic violence, according to U.S. Department of Justice estimates, that means more than 3,000 of your female classmates experienced violence at the hands of a partner.
Long story short, domestic violence is a women’s issue that Louisiana cannot ignore.
Women are oppressed in society, and oftentimes, oppressed in relationships. When her male partner has complete physical and psychological control, the misogyny of an entire society is thrust upon her. Resources like women’s shelters are often under-funded and can only provide limited emotional and medical assistance.
Around 20,000 Louisiana women are battered each year, and there’s a good chance a majority of those women are married to their abusers.
Divorce proceedings are lengthy endeavors for countless reasons. Marriage, despite being branded as a sanction of love and mutual happiness, is really just a legal entanglement.
For instance, Kim Kardashian’s infamous 72-day marriage in 2011 wasn’t settled until two years later, when she was having a child with her now- fiancée, Kanye West.
When survivors are married to their abusers, escaping the toxic situation only becomes more difficult. Marriage is a definite hindrance to women hoping to leave an abusive situation. Shared property, finances and children provide stability in a highly unstable situation.
Children in homes where domestic abuse is prevalent have high chances of being neglected, abused themselves or becoming future abusers. If the abusive parent is convicted of domestic violence and a divorce is completed, the survivor and the child no longer have financial or legal ties to the abuser.
While this one bill will obviously not eradicate the unfortunate presence of domestic violence in our state, it is, however, a sign that Louisiana’s government cares for survivors of these heinous crimes.
This is a truly remarkable action on the behalf of the Louisiana Legislature. Aside from providing battered women’s shelters with adequate funds, this is one of the most realistic ways to help survivors of abuse.
While the significance of this bill may go unnoticed in local media, its implications will have a great effect on the victims of domestic violence.
SidneyRose Reynen is an 18-year-old film and art history freshman from New Orleans.