US judge refuses divorce for pregnant woman

The Boston Globe reports Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine told Shawnna Hughes that it was the policy of the court and the state that ‘you cannot dissolve a marriage when one of the parties is pregnant’. The father of the child is not Hughes’ husband. The ruling has provoked an outcry from women’s rights groups and drawn criticism from analysts who said there was no blanket prohibition in any state against pregnant women getting divorced. Several Seattle-area family law practitioners said they had obtained divorces for pregnant clients. The judge said the case involved a thicket of other legal issues – especially because Hughes was receiving public-aid benefits, so the state had an interest in determining paternity. Full report in The Boston Globe