Pregnant Women Can’t Get Divorced in Missouri

Salutations, Meteor readers,

Last week, I shared with all of you that I was doing my first-ever Polar Bear Plunge. Thanks for asking—it turns out plunging is amazing and oddly life-affirming. Who knew?

In today’s newsletter, we’ve got an archaic divorce law, some insight into Libs of TikTok, and one billion reasons to attend medical school in the Bronx.

Signing up for swim classes,

Shannon Melero

P.S. Today is the birthday of my friend Anthony. Many of you read Anthony’s story in this newsletter and responded with kind words. Please join me in spirit tonight and raise a glass to lost loved ones and the joy of their memory.

WHAT’S GOING ON

Outdated laws: Divorce law is fascinating in how it varies from state to state. You’ve got states with common property laws, states with no-fault divorce language…and then you’ve got Missouri, Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas—states where judges cannot finalize divorce papers if one of the parties is pregnant. (It is, indeed, 2024.)

Ostensibly, these kinds of laws were put in place to help ensure the future welfare of the child: The divorce cannot be signed, sealed, and delivered until the child is born, and custody arrangements, as well as child support, can be bundled into the divorce terms. However! The law overlooks what can—and, experts say, does—happen in abusive relationships: “For abusive partners, they might be using reproductive coercion and control to keep their partner pregnant so that they can’t ever actually be granted a divorce,” a spokesperson with the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence told The Hill.

Missouri state representative Ashley Aune, who is working to change the language of this law, has seen its damage firsthand. One constituent told Aune that she was being abused by her husband and had been coerced into getting pregnant. She sought a divorce, unaware of the law, and was told it couldn’t be finalized before giving birth. “She felt she had no options,” Aune said. (And she didn’t: Missouri is also an abortion-ban state, so people who might wish not to bear a child with an abusive partner can’t make that decision.)

“I think it’s important that women who…are also looking to get out of a marriage have the capacity to do so,” Rep. Aune told the Kansas City Star.

AND:

• (TW: Self-harm) On Sunday, U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C, in what he called an “extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people.” He later died of his wounds. His death has prompted extensive conversation about the efficacy of extreme protest and questions about his mental health—along with comparisons to others who have self-immolated, including Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc, who died protesting the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, the violence continues in  Gaza, where the death toll has reached almost 30,000.

• Taylor Lorenz sat down for a lengthy discussion with the woman behind Libs of TikTok, Chaya Riachik, for the Washington Post. When asked about her followers calling in bomb threats to schools she labels “woke,” Riachik responded, “I just don’t know—what does it have to do with me?”

• Olivia Rodrigo’s Fund4Good is partnering with the National Network of Abortion Funds during the North American leg of the singer’s GUTS world tour. Through her initiative, Rodrigo will be donating to local abortion funds in the states she’ll be performing. Using your fame to help funds that have faced extreme donation drop-off in the last few months? Very logical.

• Dr. Ruth Gottesman, 93, a professor emerita at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, has changed the lives of thousands of students by donating $1 billion to the school, creating free tuition in perpetuity. Current students who have already paid for this current semester will be reimbursed.

• My colleague and editorial director of The Meteor, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, was on In Retrospect last week, talking about women, ambition, and the legacy of The Devil Wears Prada—which taught us all about girlbossing too close to the sun.

• Olympian Gabby Douglas was forced to withdraw from the 2024 Winter Cup after she tested positive for COVID-19. Douglas has been out of the gymnastics game for eight years, but has been in intense training to get back into the sport and qualify for the Paris Olympics. If she pulls off this triumphant return, she’ll be the oldest competitor on Team USA at the ripe old age of 28. You got this, granny!

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