Photo: Jeremy Woodhouse/Corbis

An Iowa State representative argued that no-fault divorce — which supporters say helps victims of domestic violence get out of bad marriages fast — should be banned for parents of minors, so that teenage girls won’t grow up sluts with daddy issues. That’s only a slight exaggeration. Speaking of his own daughter’s divorce, Representative Ted Gassman (R) voiced his concern for his granddaughter, whom we would very much like to buy a smoothie right now. According to Radio Iowa (by way of The Huffington Post) he said:

There’s a 16-year-old girl in this whole mix now. Guess what? What are the possibilities of her being more promiscuous? What are the possibilities of all these other things surrounding her life that a 16-year-old girl, with hormones raging, can get herself into?

The bill would have prohibited no-fault divorces except when one spouse could prove the other “had been convicted of a felony, had committed adultery or physical or sexual abuse, or had abandoned the family for a minimum of a year.” The good news, for now, is that the House Judiciary Committee said the bill won’t get a hearing this year, according to the Des Moines Register. In the meantime, all politicians should continue to speak their minds, as freely as possible, preferably while mic’ed, until we sort out how everyone really feels.