Thursday, February 11, 2021

HB 803 Equal Parenting Bill Will Decrease Domestic Violence, Help Victims of Sexual Assault

Texas HB 803 the Equal Parenting bill will decrease domestic violence, just as it did in Kentucky, and it will unclog family courts to be able to focus on victims and situations involving domestic violence and sexual assault.

First of all, under the Texas HB 803 Equal Parenting bill, people who have committed domestic violence or sexual assault will not get an equal custody starting point. HB 803 equal parenting only applies to parents who are determined to be joint managing conservators by the judge. A court has an obligation to not grant a parent with joint managing conservator if there has been domestic violence or sexual assault. So, HB 803 would not allow abusers to get equal custody starting point as they would not be determined fit to be a joint managing conservator.

I have previously written how equal parenting is unilaterally agreed by all research and facts in the medical and scientific community to be best for kids. I have written about the detrimental effects and harm that unequal parenting and especially fatherlessness does to children and society. I have even written about how equal parenting is supported by moms and women and can lead to better equality for women. Well, if that was not enough to get this bill passed, the facts are coming out to show that equal parenting laws are actually causing a decrease in domestic violence, and helping victims of domestic violence and sexual assault get better heard and prioritized in family court cases.

Equal parenting bills like Texas HB 803 are now being shown to DECREASE domestic violence and conflict! Kentucky is a prime example.

Kentucky passed an equal parenting bill two years ago. In the past year of data out of Kentucky, we can see that the Kentucky equal parenting bill has caused a 4 percent decrease in domestic violence and a whopping 11 percent decrease in overall child custody dispute filings in just the first year of the law. The decrease in domestic violence following equal parenting laws makes perfect sense because the current unequal family laws incentivize conflict. The current unequal parenting laws make one parent a winner and the other parent a loser, and so both sides continually fight over who is the winner and gets the kids. People get stupid and violent and aggressive when fighting over kids. Enacting equal parenting laws like HB 803 tells parents that when they go to court the kid gets equal time as long as both parents are fit, willing and able. This equal parenting starting point incentivizes good parents to not go down the path of getting violent and aggressive. It incentivizes parents behaving better. It incentivizes parents working together to share the child instead of fighting over the child, because there is nothing to fight over if the law says the new starting point is equal parenting. Fighting and domestic violence goes down, and even overall child custody cases go down, the data from Kentucky shows. But of course, as always, any domestic abusers would already not get equal parenting because they would not be granted joint managing conservator. The Kids should be the winners and the kids should get equal time with both parents.

Equal parenting bills, like Texas HB 803, will unclog the family court system and help victims of domestic violence and sexual assault to get better focus and priority in family courts.

Equal parenting bills will greatly help victims of domestic violence. Anyone who knows anything about family courts knows that they are clogged with an overwhelming number of petty disputes. Unfortunately, this has caused real, important child custody disputes to be lost in the stack of cases and pushed back. Victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault, who have real issues that need to be addressed in family court, have to wait in line to have their case heard as the Judge sorts through all of the overload of cases. A victim might be waiting in line to be heard because the judge is preoccupied with stupid cases like, I don’t know, Jim and Sally over there fighting over who gets the kids because they disagree over what kind of dog shampoo is best.

You see, the current Texas standard possession order starting point has parents starting off unequal and incentivizes parents to continually fight over stupid stuff in family court as each parent tries to get more time. This has clogged family courts and has not allowed family courts to focus on the important family disputes involving family violence and sexual assault. The Texas Equal Parenting bill HB 803 will start parents, who are deemed fit parents, off on an equal custody starting point. That means when there are no real issues then the kids get to see both parents equally. That disincentivizes fighting in family courts over small petty stuff because they will not need to fight for more time and instead will start off with equal time. Kids win and family court filings and domestic violence goes down. This unclogs the courts and allows the real important cases, such as those involving domestic violence and sexual assault, to get better attention and priority from judges.

The Texas Equal Parenting bill HB 803 will promote good parents getting along and equally sharing the children, while at the same time it will help decrease conflict and domestic violence, as we have seen in Kentucky. Kids win and courts get unclogged which will allow better focus on the important family court cases involving victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Data from Kentucky Administrative Office of Courts Research and Statistics shows a sharp decline in family child custody cases (blue line) and domestic violence cases (red line) in 2020 following passage of the Equal Parenting bill.

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