A bill that would allow Iowans planning to marry to sign a voluntary, optional contract making it harder to later divorce is currently in the Iowa Senate.

The original form of the bill, Senate File 2106, proposed a “covenant marriage,” which would make a less flexible marriage, but recent amendments have changed the name of the proposal to an “optional marriage agreement.” The agreement will allow couples to define what is intolerable and grounds for divorce in their marriage.

“It provides another option for couples and clearly defines lines for dissolution of marriage,” said Sen. Neal Schuerer, R-Amana. “We hope it will help decrease divorce rates in the state which are right around 50 percent right now.”

The bill does not set up two separate forms of marriage, but makes couples think more before getting married, said Michael Hartwig, vice president of church and community affairs for Marriage Matters of Iowa.

“If government really wants to get out of marriages and let couples take more control like so many have said lately, then passing this bill would be a great thing,” Hartwig said. “I think it’s important because it gives couples more rights to set up the parameters in their marriage and makes people a little more thoughtful before getting married.”

Sen. Johnie Hammond, D-Ames, said she thinks states should also move away from marriage legislation, but does not agree with the bill.

“In my opinion a marriage is before a couple’s friends, family and God, not before the state,” Hammond said. “Couples do file certificates of marriage with the state and that’s where I think state involvement should end. When there is a divorce the state is needed to protect the rights of those involved, especially the children. This bill, though, goes well beyond that.”

Hammond said the revisions have made the agreement “very much like a prenuptial agreement.”

“The only difference between the two are that prenuptial agreements are financial based and this bill focuses on behavior,” she said.

The bill would allow couples to make a customized marriage agreement. Couples could say abuse, adultery and abandonment are grounds for divorce. The bill would require pre-marital counseling and returning to counseling before finalizing a divorce.

“It will really make couples aware of the seriousness of their actions,” Schuerer said. “Many of the couples I have talked to who have thought about divorce have said that having the opportunity to talk out their problems helped them and made their marriage stronger.”

Not all specialists in the state agree with the proposal.

“You would think that this is something marriage and family therapists would like,” said Ronald Werner-Wilson, director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. “But as we’ve talked about it within the Iowa Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, we’ve realized we are having a lot of trouble supporting this bill because of the criteria and barriers to divorce that it puts up and the way it can put people in jeopardizing situations.”

Werner-Wilson said he fears Iowa will move away from no-fault divorce, which became law in Iowa many years ago.

“Fault divorce is expensive and never beneficial to anyone involved but the lawyers,” Werner-Wilson said. “A better solution to the problem of increasing divorce rates in the state is the use of good pre-marital counseling. There’s some pretty reliable research out there that says if couples have the right skills and tools on the front end, it can reduce divorce rates drastically.”

“I wouldn’t have signed a contract if it had been available when I got married,” said Lyndsey Purdy, a junior in elementary education who was married Dec. 29, 2001. “I don’t think anything justifies divorce, but I think the bill has the ability to harm the institution of marriage if couples partake in it.”

Similar bills have been considered in almost every other state, but only three states have passed bills. Arkansas passed a covenant marriage bill last year, Louisiana passed a similar bill in 1997 and Arizona passed one in 1998, according to www.smartmarriages.com.