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Quran

Sûrah An Nisa 4:128
"If a woman fears ill-treatment or desertion on the part of the husband, it shall be no offense to seek mutual agreement (to separate); for agreement is better (than strife). Man is prone to avarice but if you do what is right.... God will know." 

Sûrah Al-Baqarah 2. 230  
‘And women have rights similar to the rights against them, according to what is equitable.’

Sûrah Al-Baqarah 2. 229
‘There is no blame on either of them if she gives something up for her freedom.’  

Sûrah Al-Baqarah 2. 231
‘Do not retain them against their will in order to hurt…’  

Sûrah Al-Baqarah 2:241
"Reasonable provision should be made for the divorced woman. This is incumbent on righteous men"

Sûrah An Nisa 4:19
‘It is not lawful for you to try to hold your wives against their will, and neither shall you keep them under constraint with a view to taking away anything of what you may have given them, unless it be that they have become guilty of immoral conduct in an obvious manner.  Consort with wives in goodly manner; for if you dislike them, it may well be that you dislike something which God might yet make a source of abundant good.’  

Sûrah An Nisa 4.20
‘But if you desire to give up a wife and to take another in her stead, do not take away anything of what you have given the first one, however much it may have been.  Would you, perchance take it away by slandering her and thus committing a manifest sin.’  

Sûrah An Nisa 4:35
"If you fear a breach between a man and his wife, appoint an arbiter from his side and one from hers. If they wish to be reconciled, Allah will bring them together again."

Another check is the compulsory waiting period of three lunar months.  Many a reconciliation is known to have taken place during this period because the wife is to stay in the husband's home in the waiting period; human nature being what it is, it is difficult to live in close proximity with the woman who was once a wife and yet hold on to the resolve of the divorce, unless the issue is really serious.

The Islamic code is a marvelous blend of fair play and pragmatism. A provision which virtually eliminates the possibility of a crooked divorce, being used only as a ruse to humble the wife. If a man wishes to remarry his divorced wife, he can do so, the law says; but only after she has married someone else and has had marital relations with him: This condition puts the male ego under such a severe strain that no one play-acts a divorce scene.

Ahadith about Khul (paraphrased)

Ibn Abbas narrated that the wife of Thabit ibn Qais went to the Prophet (saaw) and said that she did not reproach Thabit in respect of character or religion, but does not want to be guilty of infidelity regarding Islam.  The Prophet asked her if she would return his garden, when she agreed, he asked Thabit to make a declaration of divorce.  (Bukhari)

Barirah’s husband Mughith loved her but she did not love him.  The Prophet (saaw) asked her to return to him.  She asked him if he was ordering her to do so.  When he said that it was not an order, she refused to return to him, as she did not need him, and the Prophet (saaw) asked the husband to accept the divorce.  (Bukhari)

Jamilah bint Ubaiy ibn Salul went to the Prophet (saaw) and said that she did not dislike her husband for any fault in his character or ‘deen’, but disliked his ugliness.  The Prophet (saaw) asked her to return his gift and asked the husband to accept the divorce.  (Bukhari)

Habibah bint Sahl al-Ansariah went to the Prophet (saaw) and said she did not want to live with her husband.  He asked her to return whatever he had given her and asked the husband to accept the divorce.  (Malik and Abu Dawood)

A woman brought her case to Caliph Umar (raa), he ordered her to stay with her husband, she refused.  He locked her in a filthy room for 3 days.  After 3 days he asked her if she would return to her husband, she refused again saying that she had known peace for only these 3 days.  On hearing this he asked her husband to accept the divorce.   (Kashf al Ghummah)

Rubbaiyi bint Mu’awwidh inb Afra’ tried to get khul from her husband in exchange for all her wealth, but he did not agree.  The case was brought before Caliph Uthman (raa) and he ordered him to leave her.  (Fath al Bari… Abdur Razzaq)

Note:  Men cannot ask women to give this right up as a condition of nikah.