‘Knowing that no other woman will be forced to stay in a situation that they don’t want to be in just because of their pregnancy status is everything to me,’ said state Rep. Cecelie Williams
By:Anna Spoerre
Missouri Independent
A bill making it clear that pregnancy cannot prevent a divorce from being finalized was signed into law Tuesday by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe.
While nothing precluded Missourians from filing for divorce while a party is pregnant, the current statute is interpreted by many courts as preventing the final dissolution of marriage from being issued until after the child is born, so that a custody agreement for that child can first be put into place.
The new law, which goes into effect Aug. 28, clarifies that “pregnancy status shall not prevent the court from entering a judgment of dissolution of marriage or legal separation.”
Standing beside Kehoe Tuesday afternoon as he signed the legislation was state Rep. Cecelie Williams, a Republican from Dittmer whose own story of domestic violence helped propel the bill to the governor’s desk.
Williams said she considers the bill signing her own personal Independence Day.
Years earlier, Williams tried leaving an abusive marriage while pregnant with her fourth child. A judge told her state law prohibited her from finalizing a divorce while pregnant. Her husband went on to die by suicide after their child was born, and days before their divorce was finalized.
“I say it’s my Independence Day because I don’t feel like I’ve truly ever had one where I felt free from him,” Williams told The Independent on Tuesday morning. “But knowing that no other woman will be forced to stay in a situation that they don’t want to be in just because of their pregnancy status is everything to me. I once was silenced by domestic violence, and I’ll be the voice for those who still are.”
Kehoe told those gathered for the bill signing that he will never forget his initial meeting with Williams last year, where she shared her story and how it brought her to the Capitol.
“I walked in the hallway and I almost started crying … that’s the relationship my mother came from,” Kehoe recalled. “It hit home for me.”
The legislation was co-sponsored by state Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Democrat from Ferguson and a domestic violence survivor who also attended Tuesday’s bill signing. Identical legislation they filed a year earlier died in the Senate in the final hours of the legislative session.
This year, their bill was the first non-budget bill to head to the governor’s desk after receiving the full support of both chambers.
“I’m very very proud of the state of Missouri for this step that we’re taking today,” Proudie said.
They were also joined by state Sen. Jill Carter, a Republican from Granby who handled the bill in the Senate, and House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, who proposed similar legislation.
Other lawmakers sponsored similar legislation prior to Williams entering the House, but Williams believes it was her story that helped move her colleagues to take it more seriously.
During last year’s House debate, Williams first shared a horrific account of the abuse she survived long before she considered a path as a lawmaker. She detailed how the abuse intensified once her former husband learned she was pregnant.
One in six women who experience abuse are first harmed during pregnancy, according to estimates by the March of Dimes. Homicide is the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States and among the leading causes in Missouri.
“It highlights the fact that there are so many things within our laws,” she said, “that do such a disservice to people living their lives to the fullest extent that they can.”