There is not much you can do to deny a spouse a divorce, if one lives in the U.S. Spouses in the U.S. can file for and obtain a divorce if they want to divorce. Nothing in the U.S. prevents a husband or wife from obtaining a divorce if he/she wants to divorce. This is known as no-fault divorce (meaning that one’s spouse need not have committed marital fault—such as infidelity, domestic violence, emotional cruelty, substance abuse, etc.—to seek a divorce from his/her spouse to obtain a divorce).
We could discuss the reasons why your husband wants to divorce over you having no children (was that by choice? Did you agree to have a family, but then changed your mind? Are you infertile?), but that does not really matter, given that your husband does not need a compelling reason to divorce you, if that’s what he wants to do.
There is a difference between impotency (the inability of to engage in sexual intercourse) and sterility/barrenness when it comes to grounds for divorce in some jurisdictions. Mere impotency is grounds for divorce, but in my research, I could not find any state in the U.S. where sterility/barrenness is grounds for divorce. Fraudulently concealed sterility/barrenness can be grounds for annulment (but not divorce) in some states.
If having no children is no fault of your own, and your husband would not consider adoption of a child or children, my heart goes out to you if your husband wants to divorce you. That is unfair to you.
If having a family is important to a spouse, if one is capable of conceiving children with his/her spouse, but one spouse has chosen not to have children, I hope you can you understand why the other spouse in such a situation may not want to stay married. The primary (primary, not the only, but the primary) purpose of marriage is to have children and be a family. If you married your spouse under false pretenses (i.e., claiming you wanted to have children when in fact you did not), can you see why a husband might want a divorce because of that?
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277
