Chairman Dutton, members of the
Committee, my name is Doug Conley. I am a member of an
organization called People for Equal Parenting – which
I’ll call “PEP” for the remainder of my testimony.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I also want
to specially thank Nicole Bates who worked with PEP’s
chairman in order to make it possible for me to testify
today under Charge 4. I understand that in so doing she
went beyond the strict requirements of her job and I
want her to know how much she’s appreciated.
My former spouse and I divorced in
2005. During our legal proceedings neither of us ever
accused – much less proved – that the other is an unfit
parent. Yet, under the relevant statutes of the State
of Texas, each of us has always been treated differently
than the other, regarding time with our child. I’ve
always been disturbed about this. As a result, sometime
ago I joined PEP.
PEP is a nonprofit organization
that works primarily to educate people about issues
connected to family law. It was set up in 2004. Since
then over 1,000 people have signed up on its website at
www.pepintexas.org.
One of the things I’ve learned as a
member of PEP is about the evidence that as much as 2/3
of divorce between parents today is done only because
the person who files believes he or she will be awarded
the lion’s share of post-divorce custody time with the
children – along with a significant recurrent forced
income transfer between the former spouses.
The written summary of my testimony here today
cites to the Brinig and Allen study that supports this
common sense observation and I must say that it’s
difficult not to conclude that Texas’ child custody
system needs an immediate honest evaluation in light of
this because if it’s true then what we have is a legal
system that incentivizes destroying traditional
families.
Destroying traditional families is
bad public policy when we consider that – compared to
children from traditional families – children from
nontraditional families
are:
·
Between 2-1/2 and nearly 6 times as likely
to experience child poverty;
·
2-3 times as likely to exhibit a
significant emotional or behavioral problem;
·
Have a 77% higher likelihood of being
physically abused;
·
Have an 87% higher likelihood of being
harmed by physical neglect;
·
Have a 74% higher likelihood of suffering
emotional neglect;
·
Have an 80% higher likelihood of suffering
serious injury as a result of abuse;
·
Are more than twice as likely to find
themselves in state reform institutions.
As an individual, and as – I think
– an ordinary member of PEP, I have confidence that the
Texas legislature as a whole, and this Committee in
particular, will move expeditiously to take the obvious
step implicated by available information, which is to
install a legal presumption of equal physical child
custody when fit parents divorce. Nothing we can do as
a government would do so much, so fast, to slow down our
divorce rate and the accompanying damage to the children
of Texas as a whole.
Thank you, Chairman Dutton and the
members of the Committee for your kind attention.
