Interesting Take on Spousal Notification

Much will be made in the upcoming confirmation hearings regarding Judge Alito's dissent in the Casey v. Planned Parenthood case in which the judge wrote that it is constitutional to require fathers to be notified before their children are aborted. Here's an interesting take on that subject from Political Diary:

"[Judge Alito has been attacked for] 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. 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). 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. 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?" -- Author Glenn Sacks, writing in the Los Angeles Times.

I have friends who have gone through divorces, and there's no question that the dad often gets the shaft in the legal system. And when it comes to "reproductive rights", the dad is little more than a sperm donor. The aborted child is probably the only one with fewer rights than the dad.


Samuel Alito; Alito; SCOTUS; Supreme Court