Spouses who want a divorce may have to wait longer to call it quits, and husbands and wives who commit adultery could lose their rights to marital property.

Several members of the state Senate and House are pushing bills they say will strengthen marriage by making divorce a longer, and perhaps, more costly, process.

State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) introduced a bill Wednesday that would extend the waiting period for an uncontested divorce for a couple with children younger than age 18 from 30 days to six months. The waiting period for a divorcing couple without children younger than 18 would be four months.

“The General Assembly finds that children are the innocent victims of legal separation and divorce and that, when two parties separate or divorce, there is a devastating impact on their children who have had no voice in the decision to disrupt the family,” the first section of the bill reads. “Oftentimes, these children of divorce are negatively affected academically, socially, emotionally, and psychologically as a result of the stress and trauma placed on the family by the separation or divorce.”

The bill also would require divorcing parents with children to attend classes that focus on the effects of divorce and separation on children. Many judicial circuits in Georgia already require such classes.

“The social impact of divorce is overwhelming,” Seabaugh said. “I think it is important to do what we can to help families.”

In the House, state Rep. Nikki Randall, a Macon Democrat, prefiled a bill that would prohibit a divorcing man or woman from receiving any marital property if he or she committed adultery, leading to the break-up of the marriage.

The bill also would require the person who committed adultery to attend 12 hours of counseling on marital issues within six months of the final order granting divorce.

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