President Donald Trump’s administration’s focus on promoting marriage and families has trickled down to lawmakers in several conservative states, which have considered repealing or restricting no-fault divorce.

A Texas bill proposed in February sought to end this type of divorce, in which neither spouse has to show wrongdoing by the other to dissolve their marriage. Another bill introduced in Indiana this year tried to end the practice for couples with children. Similar bills previously were filed in Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota, but none passed into law.

At the same time, more conservative states are considering covenant marriage, a voluntary but restrictive contract that requires fault-based grounds, such as adultery or abuse, for divorce. It is now permitted in Arizona, Arkansas and Louisiana, and lawmakers have proposed legislation in Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma.

“I’ve been watching very intently the efforts to repeal no-fault divorce and to encourage covenant marriage laws at both the state and the federal level, in part because I strongly believe that no-fault divorce is the foundation to a fair and modern divorce system,” says Erin Levine, the owner of the Levine Family Law Group in Alameda, California, and the founder and CEO of Hello Divorce.

While proponents say no-fault divorce and covenant marriage would foster family stability and protect children, Levine and other creators of legal tech companies that aim to simplify divorce contend they would make the process more expensive, time-consuming and contentious; and they would disproportionately harm women and children, especially those who are victims of domestic violence.

As states continue to consider and advance these laws, legal tech leaders who have automated the divorce process are not only paying attention to the potential impact on their clients but on their businesses moving forward.

Conservative politicians in the highest levels of government have galvanized the campaign to roll back no-fault divorce. This includes Vice President JD Vance, who has raised concerns about how easy it is to end a marriage. At a 2021 event, he lamented that people can “shift spouses like they change their underwear,” to the detriment of their children.

No-fault divorce is legal in all 50 states, with California becoming the first to adopt its statute in 1969. Then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan said the law was “a step towards removing the acrimony and bitterness between a couple that is harmful not only to their children but also to society as a whole.”

Efforts to repeal no-fault divorce are “dangerous,” says Levine, a 2022 ABA Journal Legal Rebel who launched Hello Divorce in 2018. She cites data that shows a decrease in the number of women who died by suicide and the number of women and men who experienced domestic violence in states that adopted these laws. Requiring couples to assign blame in a divorce could keep them in unhealthy relationships longer, she adds. It also could further complicate the already-complex divorce process, which often costs up to $20,000 and can take 12 to 18 months.

Laws that support fault-based divorce and covenant marriage may impact couples in other ways. Scott Seidewitz, the co-founder and CEO of BlissDivorce, an online platform available in California, says fewer people may choose to get married in the future. “If younger people see that it’s going to be difficult to get divorced if they’ve made a mistake, I think there will be an unintended consequence that is the exact opposite of what is intended from these laws,” he says. “There will be fewer people getting married, and it will undermine the institution of marriage.”

If states limit the ability to get divorces, it could initially limit the number of people who access BlissDivorce, says Seidewitz, who created the platform in 2019 and plans to soon expand to Texas and elsewhere. “But once a couple meets [their state’s] requirements, they are still going to need to reach an agreement,” he says. “In the end, what our product does will be the same in terms of helping them work out that settlement much more quickly and with much less conflict.”

How they serve clients may not change, but online divorce platforms will need revisions as states and counties alter divorce laws. This is something Michelle Crosby, the founder of Wevorce, one of the first legal tech companies in this space, has already done. “The software itself is built like a sophisticated decision tree,” says Crosby, a 2014 ABA Journal Legal Rebel who is based in Boise, Idaho. “So if rules change, which they do, we have to update the questionnaire to keep us compliant.”

Education on new laws and their effects could be a focus of Hello Divorce moving forward, says Levine, who has noted an uptick in divorce inquiries from people in states that have considered ending no-fault divorce. She also has received more questions from LGBTQ+ couples about the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, which would allow states to ban same-sex marriage again, and how that changes divorce for them.

The company’s network of attorneys, mediators and life coaches, as well as its new AI assistant, Hallie, will be prepared to support and provide guidance to these clients, Levine says. She also anticipates that clients will need more support in court if states turn away from no-fault divorce or toward covenant marriage.

“We would really need to ensure that we have lawyers who are not just resolution-minded advocates, but that we also have lawyers who are prepared to and do litigate in court,” she says.

Julia Rodgers, the founder and CEO of HelloPrenup, is also watching the possible shift away from no-fault divorce. She launched her company in 2021 to make prenuptial agreements more accessible for couples and believes that work could become even more important.

“You’re really going to have to dictate before getting married how you want to see finances play out in your marriage,” says Rodgers, who is based in Boston. “You need to have those conversations about what you want, what you envision your life to look like, because it might not be that easy to get divorced.”

Recent changes to HelloPrenup include incorporating embryo clauses, which Rodgers says will help a couple decide what happens to their frozen embryos if they get divorced.

“We want to try to allow couples to make conscious decisions over their reproductive property in a prenuptial agreement before getting married, especially given the political climate,” Rodgers says.