Pregnant women in Missouri have long faced legal hurdles in dissolving their marriages, but a new law taking effect later this month will explicitly bar judges from delaying divorce proceedings solely because a spouse is pregnant. In Missouri, courts routinely required custody and paternity issues to be settled first, a practice critics said trapped vulnerable individuals—particularly domestic violence survivors—in marriages against their will. Kirk Stange, a founding partner of Stange Law Firm, one of the largest family law firms in the country, said Missouri courts historically interpreted existing statutes to require waiting until paternity could be definitively established. "In my years practicing family law, I have not seen Missouri courts bifurcate divorces in this manner where they deal with custody after granting the divorce." Her experience became a centerpiece of the campaign to reform Missouri law.