fruminnj: Virtually every point in all your comments are directly contradicted in the Shulchan Aruch. Point by point.
“Yes, if they don’t, there’s penalties.”
The S”A clearly states that Beis Din is prohibited from penalizing the husband into giving a Get in the run of the mill divorce case where there’s no fault on the part of the husband. And the only time aB”D is halachicly permitted to penalize him into giving a Get is when he both a) is at “fault” with a specifically given fault by Chazal as a valid cause for divorce *and* b) there’s eyewitness evidence that he’s at fault (if he denies it.)
“But the sages have ruled financial incentives make the arrangement voluntary and willful.”
The SA specifically rules that creating a financial penalty to facilitate him giving the Get invalidates the Get even if he gives it to avoid said penalties.
“Women have more discretion to refuse the Get.”
Umm, Gittin 101 that’s taught to every Mesivta kid and up and is written all over the Mishna, Gemorah and SA and everything in between is exactly the opposite.
“At least in the cases I’ve been involved with, I can only speak from personal experience, it’s usually the women who want the divorce; not the men.”
Here you’re actually correct. Which is the reason the Torah gave the decision whether to divorce to the husband. To, exactly, discourage too many divorces.
“The days of needing witnesses to prove a claim for spousal abuse are no longer valid… As long as the woman is credible, her word alone is sufficient. Also, the man is not actually being punished for any allegations so there’s no need for witnesses. No one is being stoned to death. All the husband is required to do is provide a Get. ”
Halacha doesn’t change with each new century. This comment is utterly the opposite of the Halacha. The SA very very clearly says that Beis Din cannot mandate he divorce her if he doesn’t want to if there isn’t the eyewitness testimony of two witnesses corroborating her claims. And her claims can only be from the very limited specifically defined circumstances specified by Chazal that allow a Beis Din to mandate a Get.
Furthermore, the Shulchan Aruch rules that if a Beis Din orders the husband to give a Get when halachicly the Beis Din had no right to order him so, then the Get he gave is a Get Me’usa.