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Alito and the rights of men |
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By Glenn Sacks, GLENN
SACKS writes about issues involving
men and fathers. His website is
www.GlennSacks.com. |
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IMMEDIATELY AFTER President
Bush nominated Judge Samuel A. Alito
Jr. to the U.S. Supreme Court, the National
Organization for Women sent out a nationwide
"action alert" announcing
that it is "ready for the fight"
against Alito, and that he "opposes
our rights." |
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Planned Parenthood also
wasted no time before blasting the nomination,
saying that Alito had shown "callous
disregard of battered women." |
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How did Alito do these
terrible things? Apparently his sin
is his 1991 vote to uphold a section
of a Pennsylvania law that required
women to notify their husbands if they
intended to have an abortion. That law,
according to women's rights groups,
would have put women in harm's way by
subjecting them to the wrath of their
angry husbands. (When NOW says "husband"
or "father," it's usually
preceded by the word "abusive";
the word "wife" is generally
modified by "battered.") |
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I hate to interrupt the
ladies while they're enjoying a good
lynching, but Alito's defense of the
Pennsylvania law is quite defensible,
despite their hysterical claims. Alito
simply acknowledged the principle that
husbands and fathers also have a reasonable
interest in their unborn children. |
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And the truth is that
the statute contained numerous, well-enumerated
protections for women — protections
that Alito cited and supported. Section
3209 of the law specifically stated
that a woman's obligation to inform
her husband did not apply if she had
reason to believe it was likely to result
in the infliction of bodily injury.
(If she were to claim this falsely,
it would be punished — gasp — as a third-degree
misdemeanor.) |
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What's troubling in all
this is how indignant women's advocates
become at the simple suggestion that
husbands be granted any consideration
in these matters. Over the last 30 years,
the issue has been loaded with anti-male
double standards. |
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For instance, when a woman
gets pregnant she — and she alone —
has the right to decide whether or not
to carry the baby to term, and whether
to raise the child herself or to give
it up for adoption. Fathers have no
say in the matter. |
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In Los Angeles today,
bus stop posters read "No shame.
No blame. No names." The posters
explain that in California, as in more
than 40 states, a mother can terminate
all parental responsibility by returning
the baby to the hospital within a few
days or weeks of birth, with no repercussions
(and no consultation with the father).
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Yet if the mother decides
that she wants to keep the child, she
can demand 18 years of child support
from the father, and he has no choice
in the matter. |
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Feminists base their support
for Roe vs. Wade in large part on the
idea of "My Body, My Choice."
Yet men also help create children. Why
should they have no say? |
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Fetal protection laws
now severely punish anyone who harms
a fetus — except for mom. A Texas teenager,
Gerardo Flores, is serving life in prison
for the death of two fetuses, even though
his girlfriend, Erica Basoria, acknowledged
asking him to help end her pregnancy. |
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According to Basoria,
four months into her pregnancy with
twins she regretted not getting an abortion
and punched herself in the stomach while
Flores stepped on her stomach to induce
a miscarriage. Basoria, who stood by
Flores and cried when he was sentenced,
could not be prosecuted because of her
legal right to abortion. |
Alito may or may not have been correct
in supporting the Pennsylvania law.
But he wasn't wrong in acknowledging
reproductive rights for men. |
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