Findlaw includes an update on the movement in New York toward “true no-fault divorce,” noting the practical effects of making divorces hard to get (out-of-state divorces, dishonesty, perjury, fraud). In Michigan, we see legislative efforts every year in the opposite direction (returning to fault-based divorce or making divorces more time-consuming and costly).
Joanna Grossman writes (excerpt):
But the lesson from this history–and from that of other states that maintained relatively stricter divorce laws–is that divorce law bears almost no relation to the divorce rate. In practice, couples simply do not stay married merely because their home state makes it hard for them to part ways. And they certainly do not become happy together merely because divorce is too difficult or too expensive to obtain.
Thus, when the demand for divorce is powerful–which it is now, and has been for more than a century–the effect of strict laws is to cause a variety of unintended effects. While the intent may be to keep couples united, the actual effects are very different.