Married couples across the U.S. have had access to no-fault divorce for more than 50 years, an option many call crucial to supporting domestic abuse victims and key to preventing already crowded family courts from drowning in complicated divorce proceedings.

But some advocates for women worried as old comments from now Vice President-elect JD Vance circulated during the presidential campaign opposing no-fault divorce. And after President-elect Donald Trump and Vance won the election, warnings began popping up on social media urging women who might be considering divorce to “pull the trigger” while they still could. Some attorneys posted saying they were seeing a spike in calls from women seeking divorce consultations.

Trump – who is twice-divorced – hasn’t championed overhauling the country’s divorce laws, but in 2021 Vance lamented that divorce is too easily accessible. Conservative podcasters and others have, as well.

“We’ve run this experiment in real time and what we have is a lot of very, very real family dysfunction that’s making our kids unhappy,” Vance said during a speech at a Christian high school in California, where he criticized people being able to “shift spouses like they change their underwear.”

Despite concerns, even those who want to make divorces harder to get say they don’t expect big, swift changes. There is no national coordinated effort underway. And states determine their own divorce laws, so national leaders can’t change policy.

“Even in some of the so-called red states, it hasn’t gotten anywhere,” said Beverly Willett, co-chair of the Coalition for Divorce Reform, whose group has unsuccessfully attempted to get states to repeal their no-fault divorce laws.

Mark A. Smith, a political science professor at the University of Washington, said that while many Americans have become accustomed to no-fault divorce being an option, Vance’s previous comments on making it more difficult to separate from a spouse could help jumpstart that effort.

“Even though he’s not directly proposing a policy, it’s a topic that hasn’t gotten a ton of discussion in the last 15 years,” Smith said. “And so to have a national profile politician talk that way is noteworthy.”

Meanwhile, Republican Party platforms in Texas and Nebraska were amended in 2022 to call for the removal of no-fault divorce. Louisiana’s Republican Party considered something similar earlier this year but ultimately declined to do so.

A handful of proposals have been introduced in conservative-led statehouses over the years, but all immediately stalled after they were filed.

In January, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Dusty Deevers introduced legislation that would have kept married couples from filing for divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. Deevers backed the bill after writing a piece declaring no-fault divorce was an “abolition of marital obligation.”

Similarly, in South Carolina, two Republican lawmakers in 2023 filed a bill that would have required both spouses to file for a no-fault divorce application rather than just one. And in South Dakota, a Republican lawmaker has attempted to remove irreconcilable difference as grounds for divorce since 2020.

None of the sponsors of these bills responded to interview requests from The Associated Press. All are members of their state’s conservative Freedom Caucus.

Alarms sounded 

Nevertheless, some Democratic lawmakers say they remain worried about the future of no-fault divorce. They point to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 as an example of a long-accepted option that was revoked through a decades-long effort.

“When you choose to be silent, you allow for this to creep in,” said Democratic South Dakota Rep. Linda Duba. “These are the bills that gain a foothold because you choose to be silent.”

Before California became the first state to adopt a no-fault divorce option in 1969, married couples had to prove their spouse had violated one of the approved “faults” outlined in their state’s divorce law or risk a judge denying their divorce, said Joanna Grossman, a law professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Qualified reasons varied from state to state, but largely included infidelity, incarceration or abandonment.

The system was a particular burden on domestic violence victims, often times women, who could be stuck in dangerous marriages while trying to prove their partner’s abuse in court through expensive and lengthy legal proceedings.

“(Even) if there was any evidence that the couple both wanted to get divorced, that was supposed to be denied because divorce was not something you got because you wanted it, it was something you got because you’ve been wronged in a way that the state thought was significant,” Grossman said.

“Extremely worried”  

To date, every state in the U.S. has adopted a no-fault divorce option. However, 33 states still have a list of approved “faults” to file as grounds for divorce – ranging from adultery to felony conviction. In 17 states, married people only have the option of choosing no-fault divorce to end their marriages.

Calls to reform no-fault divorce have remained fairly silent until the late 1990s, when concern pushed by former President George Bush’s administration over the country’s divorce rate sparked a brief movement for states to adopt “covenant marriages.” The option didn’t replace a state’s no-fault divorce law, but provided an option for couples that carried counseling requirements and strict exceptions for divorce.

Louisiana was the first state to embrace covenant marriage options, but the effort largely stopped after Arizona and Arkansas followed suit.

Christian F. Nunes, president of the National Organization for Women, said she is “extremely worried” about the possibility of no-fault divorce being removed with the incoming Trump administration, Republican-controlled Congress and wide range of conservative state leaders.

“With so many states focusing on a misogynistic legislative agenda, this will turn back the clocks on women’s rights even more,” Nunes said in a statement. “This is why removing ‘no fault’ divorce is another way for the government to control women, their bodies, and their lives. Eliminating no-fault divorce is also a backdoor way of eliminating gay marriage, since this implies that a marriage is only between a man and a woman.”

With Trump’s reelection, Willett, whose group opposes no-fault divorce, said she’s cautiously optimistic that the political tide could change.

“Was what he said an indication of things to come? I don’t know,” Willett said. “It’s a good thing but it’s certainly not anything that has been really discussed other than a few high profile conservatives who talk about it.”

NEW YORK — An Osprey being used to ferry White House staff and government officials from an event in New York on Monday was grounded due to a safety concern, with one witness reporting flames under the right engine.

The staff and officials were removed from the aircraft, part of the Marine Corps HMX-1 presidential helicopter fleet, and transferred to a second Osprey to continue their trip accompanying President Joe Biden at a “Friendsgiving” event with members of the U.S. Coast Guard in Staten Island.

The issue caused only a minor delay for Biden’s return to Washington on Monday evening.

The incident occurred the same day lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asking him to re-ground the military’s entire fleet of V-22 Ospreys until solutions can be put in place to address safety and design issues identified by The Associated Press in its recent in-depth investigation of the aircraft’s accident record.

The Marine Corps did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the New York incident. A journalist traveling with the president reported seeing a fire under the right engine shortly before staff were notified the Osprey would be grounded.

It’s not the first time White House staff or reporters have had to be removed from an Osprey during a trip due to safety concerns. In November 2023 an Osprey ferrying White House reporters and staff returned to the ground shortly after takeoff after four loud “pops” were heard and smoke was seen.

In the letter sent Monday to Austin, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and Rep. Richard Neal, all Democrats from Massachusetts, said that “given the current concerns about the safety of the V-22, the aircraft should be grounded, and should not be deployed again until the platform’s significant deficiencies are fully addressed.”

The Osprey, which flies like both a helicopter and an airplane, has been in more than 21 major accidents, many of which can be tied back to choices made in its design, the AP found.

The whole fleet was grounded for three months this year following a deadly crash in Japan in November 2023 that killed eight service members, including one from Massachusetts.

Ospreys, which are operated by the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps and used in the presidential fleet, have now returned to flight operations, with some restrictions.

Osprey pilots have told the AP they do not want to see the aircraft grounded, despite safety concerns, because of its unique capabilities. Program officials have said they are working on fixes to improve the V-22’s safety and reliability.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

The lawmakers also cited the AP’s reporting that pilots are having to push the V-22’s “interim power” feature to be able to land safely — but are advised against it because it can wear down parts. Interim power was a factor in the most recent accident in October when a Japanese self-defense forces Osprey violently tilted and struck the ground on takeoff. An investigation determined the pilots were to blame for not turning on the interim power during takeoff.

“The reality for pilots is that they have to push the aircraft to its limits to stay safe,” the lawmakers wrote.

A sonar image suspected of showing the remains of the plane of Amelia Earhart, the famed American aviator who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937, has turned out to be a rock formation.

Deep Sea Vision (DSV), a South Carolina-based firm, released the blurry image in January captured by an unmanned submersible of what it said may be Earhart’s plane on the seafloor.

Not so, the company said in an update on Instagram this month.

“After 11 months the waiting has finally ended and unfortunately our target was not Amelia’s Electra 10E (just a natural rock formation),” Deep Sea Vision said.

“As we speak DSV continues to search,” it said. “The plot thickens with still no evidence of her disappearance ever found.”

The image was taken by DSV during an extensive search in an area of the Pacific to the west of Earhart’s planned destination, remote Howland Island.

Tony Romeo, a pilot and former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year that he funded the $11 million search by selling off his commercial real estate properties.

“This is maybe the most exciting thing I’ll ever do in my life,” he told the Journal. “I feel like a 10-year-old going on a treasure hunt.”  

Earhart went missing while on a pioneering round-the-world flight with navigator Fred Noonan.

Her disappearance is one of the most tantalizing mysteries in aviation lore, fascinating historians for decades and spawning books, movies and theories galore.

The prevailing belief is that Earhart, 39, and Noonan, 44, ran out of fuel and ditched their twin-engine Lockheed Electra in the Pacific near Howland Island while on one of the final legs of their epic journey.

Earhart, who won fame in 1932 as the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, took off on May 20, 1937 from Oakland, California, hoping to become the first woman to fly around the world.

Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, while flying over the Pacific Ocean during Earhart’s attempt to become the first female aviator to circle the globe. They vanished without a trace, spurring the largest and most expensive search and rescue effort by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard in American history. Earhart and Noonan were declared dead two years later.

Multiple deep-sea searches using high-tech equipment have tried but failed over the years to find Earhart’s plane.

There other theories about where Earhart may have vanished. Ric Gillespie, who has researched Earhart’s doomed flight for decades, told CBS News in 2018 that he had proof Earhart crash-landed on Gardner Island — about 350 nautical miles from Howland Island — and that she called for help for nearly a week before her plane was swept out to sea.

Gillespie’s organization, the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, has also claimed that it found forensic evidence, including bones on the island, that were likely Earhart’s.

contributed to this report.