Breaking up is easy to do

Divorce | As New York completes the no-fault divorce revolution, both conservatives and feminists voice concerns about the effects on women, children, and the institution of marriage | Alisa Harris

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Two days after Christmas in 1993, Thomas McClintock's wife told him she was leaving him. After five placid years of marriage, he was shocked and willing to do whatever it took to keep her.

"I thought we were a good match," he said. "I genuinely loved her. . . . We enjoyed the mundane things about life—going grocery shopping. . . . It wasn't all that great but it wasn't that bad and I thought it was something we could work on."

But days later she left her job, her dog, her house, her country, and her husband. She came back a few months later. They sat down and divided their finances. Then she was gone.

McClintock, then a resident of Virginia, said he considers himself a "victim" of unilateral no-fault divorce: "What other kind of legal contract can you end like that without any kind of legal consequences?"