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November 02, 2005
If someone is planning to kill my kid, I'd like to know
A lot of hay has been made over how Sam Alito, the Supreme Court nominee, voted to uphold a Pennsylvania law requring wives to inform their husbands before an abortion. (The rest of the court disagreed and struck down the law.) Somehow Alito's opinion is seen as an infringement on a woman's right to choose.
I'm generally pro-choice (as a libertarian), but if my unborn kid is about to be aborted, I think I should at least be informed, even if I don't have a say in whether Junior is murdered. The only problem with the law is that it did not go far enough to provide men some influence in whether or not his child is killed. (Perhaps fathers' rights are difficult to establish in practice, but the idea sounds good in theory.)
Of course, the real aim of the Pennsylvania law was to force adulterers who were too stupid to use condoms and the Pill to come clean. In the sense that the law encourages people to be faithful on their commitments, it is also desireable. If married individuals want society to provide benefits because they choose to marry, they ought to at least be faithful on the commitments they made.
UPDATE: The NY Times has an unusually fair and balanced look at Alito's abortion and marriage decisions.
Posted by adrianjo at November 2, 2005 12:33 PM