By Bob Katzen

Would give the courts the authority to terminate alimony payments and deny future alimony petitions if the spouse receiving the payments has been convicted of spousal abuse.

The bill defines “abuse” as including “attempting to cause or causing physical harm, placing a spouse in fear of imminent serious physical harm and causing a spouse to engage involuntarily in sexual relations by force, threat or duress.”

“Every year, more than 12 million people in the U.S. experience violence by an intimate partner,” said sponsor Sen. Jake Oliveira (D-Ludlow). “Yet, in Massachusetts, it is possible for survivors of spousal abuse, who have already taken the near impossible step of leaving an abusive marriage, to be required to pay alimony to their abuser after they escape that relationship.” He noted that he filed the measure to ensure that survivors are protected from further abuse.