Pro-Marriage Bill Passes House, Advances to Senate

Yesterday, Rep. Mark McCullough's pro-marriage bill, HB 2634, passed the state House of Representatives on a 51-45 vote.

HB 2634 would require two hours of pre-marital counseling before the issuance of a marriage license and provide a $45 dollar discount on a marriage license for couples getting eight or more hours of pre-marital counseling.

The measure also allows for a “covenant marriage” license, ends future recognition of “common law” marriages, and requires court directed pre-divorce education classes for couples with children. Those courses would cover issues such as the impact of separate parenting on children and separate financial responsibility for children.

McCullough noted the counseling and divorce education provisions are already in state law, but are permissive and participation is not mandatory.

“The problem of family fragmentation is the elephant in the living room of state government,” McCullough said. “The fallout from divorce and unwed childbearing cost the State hundreds of millions of dollars annually and it goes against the grain of our conservative culture here in Oklahoma. Yet getting to the point of having a forthright discussion on these issues has proven difficult. So many people have either been divorced or someone close to them has gone through divorce, and that makes people uncomfortable with these issues. I really understand the painful nature of this whole subject. I’m not trying to hurt or shame anyone; I just don’t think we can afford to avert our gaze anymore. This is a conversation we need to have as a state and the Oklahoma House was an appropriate place to start it.”

A recent study from the Institute for American Values and Georgia Family Council, The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Estimates for the Fifty States and the Nation, conservatively estimates divorce has a dramatic impact on the cost of state government (largely through public assistance programs) – of at least $430 million annually in Oklahoma.

McCullough's bill now heads to the state Senate.