South Dakota shared parenting bill passes

The South Dakota state legislature has passed a shared parenting rebuttable presumption bill by a vote of 42 to 25. You can find a news story on the bill here.

A rebuttable presumption means that in separation and divorce, both parents equally keep their parenting time, status and responsibilities unless otherwise (i.e. sole custody) is proven to be in the child’s best interest.

Social science overwhelmingly shows that equal shared parenting (ESP) is in children’s interests, in the vast majority of cases. An ESP presumption was the core of the 2014 Canadian Bill C-560 which failed to pass because then Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered the Conservative cabinet to vote against it, and opposition from vested interests in the legal industry. Harper now has a multimillion dollar job at a law firm.

There have been provincial reviews of family law problems in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

Canadian parents are now following the successful reform model of parents in the United States, where state affiliates work with National Parents Organization on jurisdictional change. So far, Arizona and Kentucky have effective ESP regimes, strongly approved by voters and gaining support from judges and other related professionals. If the South Dakota legislation is signed into law, another ESP success will further contradict the unfounded claims of the legal industry lobbyists that ESP is not working anywhere, that where it was working it was rolled back and that where it is working, it caused problems.

In the US, family law is almost exclusively a State jurisdiction, while in Canada it is shared, with the federal level legislating on divorce (married parents) while provinces legislate on common law separations. Complicating matters, judges are appointed federally, while provinces administer the courts. Canadian parents need reforms at both federal and provincial levels. This is difficult as lawyers infest the levers of power, control bureaucracies and political bodies disproportionately, and get much government funding.

Canadian parents demand recognition as stakeholders and advocates for their children on the issue of family court and law reform. They are demanding laws and practice based on the science and jurisdictional success of equal shared parenting. They are demanding changes to the current adversarial, unaffordable, unfair and failing family law system. They want consensual agreements, shared parenting, equal status as parents, and a presumption of ESP unless  parent unfitness or safety reaches an evidence-based standard. They want an end to arbitrary orders, too often based on prejudice, sexist or racist bias or unsubstantiated claims.

In short, parents want justice for children. Parents agree with Manitoba Attorney General Heather Stephensson who stated that family courts “harm” children. The fix is equal shared parenting.