THE RIGHT PRESCRIPTION FOR AMERICA

SOME AREN’T SWALLOWING the idea of Second Choice Sam Alito for the Supreme Court as easily as others.  On the right it is all right on, what’s left to do but confirm the guy.  The unfortunately named Charles Krauthammer hat’s the big deal about notifying your husband [story]

Pop quiz: Which of the following abortion regulations is more restrictive, more burdensome, more likely to lead more women to forgo abortion?

(a) Requiring a minor to get the informed consent of her parents, or to get a judge to approve the abortion. (b) Requiring a married woman to sign a form saying that she notified her husband.
(b) Can any reasonable person have any doubt? A minor is intrinsically far more subject to the whims, anger, punishment, economic control and retribution of a parent. And the minor is required to get both parents involved in the process and to get them to agree to the abortion.

The married woman just has to inform her husband. Even less than that. She just has to sign a form saying that she informed him. No one checks. Moreover, under the Pennsylvania law I draw my example from, she could even forgo notification if she claimed that (1) he was not the father, (2) he could not be found, (3) he raped her or (4) she had reason to believe he might physically harm her. What prosecutor would subsequently dare try to prove to a jury that, say, she actually had no such fear of harm?
Remember: The question is not whether (a) or (b) is the wiser restriction. The only relevant question is which is more likely to discourage the woman from getting an abortion.
The answer is obvious.
Why is this the relevant question?

MANY WOULD WOULD TELL Krauthammer to take his pop quiz and pop off someonewhere else.  Far away.  Coming soon: a law requiring women to notify husbands they are taking a job; a law requring women to notify women on the choice of color for the burkha of the day.  Not coming soon: men required to notify wives of Viagra prescription; men required to notify women of control of remote on Monday Night Football. 

SOME WOMEN MAY also pettily note the comparison between  a grown woman's concerns and a child's in Krauthammer's argument, which goes along way to saying what he thinks of them
NOTE: Alito TM is a licensed brandname of Berube Corp.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING
HARD REALITY FOR DEMOCRATS [Michael Kinsley/Slate] So, how conservative is "too conservative"? Democrats like the phrase "outside the mainstream." They also like to emphasize that the next justice will be replacing Sandra Day O'Connor, an icon of swing-vote moderation. The notion is that presidents of all stripes are under some kind of vague, floating obligation to keep the court in ideological balance. This, unfortunately, is a party-out-of-power fantasy. There is no requirement of moderation in the abstract. President Bush needn't nominate a compromise candidate just to show he's a good sport.

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