On Timcast IRL, Terry Schilling claims no-fault divorce will lead to our cities being “ransacked” by “criminal orphans”

Head of the anti-trans organization American Principles Project Terry Schilling appeared on an episode of Timcast IRL where he compared no-fault divorce in the United States to “the dissolution of marriage and the abolition of family in the Soviet Union.”

The movement against no-fault divorce was reestablished as a right-wing project following the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, with many conservative media figures attributing a supposed rejection of traditional marriages to no-fault divorce laws. Daily Wire host Michael Knowles has gone as far as claiming his wife would have to “murder” him to get out of their marriage. Right-wing streamer Steven Crowder has also repeatedly attacked no-fault divorce. And Timcast IRL host Tim Pool titled a related June 2022 video “No-Fault Divorce Has DESTROYED Men's Confidence In Marriage, Men Don't Want To Get Married Anymore.”

While on the June 26 edition of Timcast IRL, Schilling referenced a 1926 Atlantic article about “the dissolution of marriage and the abolition of family in the Soviet Union.” Schilling claimed that because divorce became an easy process and “no-fault,” Soviet cities and towns were “ransacked by these criminal orphans” and stated “this is exactly what we’re going through” in the United States.

From the June 26, 2023, edition of Timcast IRL

TERRY SCHILLING (PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT): The Atlantic ran this article in 1926, and you can find the actual copy of it, but it was about the dissolution of marriage and the abolition of family in the Soviet Union. They like, they had a reporter go over and she went to all these little towns. They basically made marriage dissolution a five-minute process, no-fault, anyone can go in.

TIM POOL (HOST): Hey, didn't Reagan do that?

SCHILLING: That's right, he was one of the first — I think they were the first state, California.

POOL: There you go.

SCHILLING: That's exactly right. So in this article it has stories from the villagers who are saying this is insane. What was happening is these guys would go and they'd knock up these women after marrying them and then they'd just abandon them and you would have these entire towns and cities being ransacked by these criminal orphans, right? And —

POOL: Kind of like what's happening now.

SCHILLING: Exactly. Exactly. This is exactly what we're going through. It's been a longer process in the United States. I mean we've had, what, no-fault divorce for I think 70 years about? But this is exactly what we're living —

POOL: It was the '80s.

SCHILLING: No it was in the like '50s and '60s when they started doing — like striking it down through the courts I think.

POOL: It was Reagan who explicitly got rid of no-fault divorce.

SCHILLING: But he did it when he was governor of California, I think. I don't think there was a federal dissolution of marriage act, I think the states started doing it. But it's exactly what we're going through right now and it's so crazy.

Later in the episode, Schilling told Pool, “We’re trying to figure out how to solve this, too,” in response to Pool’s ideas for getting around no-fault divorce laws. While explaining Louisiana’s covenant marriage laws which prevent married couples from using no-fault divorce laws, Schilling claimed there needs to be a “marketing campaign” for covenant marriages and stated “you would think that like women would demand that their husband or their fiancé enters into that extra protection of marriage.”

From the June 26, 2023, edition of Timcast IRL

IAN CROSSLAND (CO-HOST): I can confirm 50 years ago, it was 54, no-fault divorce. 1969 in California, Ronald Reagan signed the first no-fault divorce statute.

TIM POOL (HOST): Oh it was the '50s. You're right. I thought it was in his presidency.

CROSSLAND: And I guess he did it again when he was president nationally? Is that the story?

TERRY SCHILLING (PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT): I don't know. I don't think he did. I don't think there's anything nationally. I think it's just like the courts all started striking it down, a lot like the gay marriage progress.

CROSSLAND: And now in all 50 states there's no-fault divorce. So what? Do we reverse this no-fault divorce thing?

POOL: Yes. Absolutely. This is what I was describing. I said how about we do this. You can keep your no-fault divorce but we'll create something called super marriage where if you agree to — first you get married, but once you're married you can then upgrade through the courts to a super marriage and you can't break a super marriage, sorry it's 'til death do us part.

SCHILLING: So in Louisiana — we're trying to figure out how to solve this, too. Louisiana has something called covenant marriage and it's not like what you just described where you can upgrade your marriage. You either enter into like a state marriage, a government marriage, or you enter into a covenant marriage and it's — you don't abide by no-fault divorce. But the numbers for it are not impressive and so there needs to be more, like a marketing campaign for it. I need to look more into it, to be honest. I don't know if they've tried to market it but you would think that like women would demand that their husband or their fiancé enters into that extra protection of marriage, but I don't know.

POOL: Marriage today has been downgraded to dating.

SCHILLING: It's like Disney.

POOL: You see celebrities, like they were married for a year. I'm like, bro, what's the point of saying 'til death do us part if you actually mean like we'll see how it goes.

PHIL LABONTE (CO-HOST): Garbage.

POOL: Yeah, marriage doesn't exist. No-fault divorce ended marriage. Now we have something we call marriage but there's no marriage and surprise, surprise, we're headed in a similar direction to the Soviets. Slower, you know, because we do have protections from the Constitution and things like that, but it's happening.

As the right moves to establish policies rolling back marriage equality and limiting contraceptives, no-fault divorce is also in the crosshairs of conservative pundits. Media Matters senior writer John Knefel told Jezebel: “Ultimately, although it might seem outlandish now, that doesn’t mean it’s going to seem outlandish two or three years from now. If the overturning of Roe taught us anything, it’s to take conservatives at their word when they say they want to take our freedoms.”

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