Save us from our own legislation!

For sheer hypocritical chutzpah, it's hard to beat this letter to the editor publlished in the March 9 NYT:

To the Editor:

Re "Scant Drop Seen in Abortions if Parents Are Told" (front page, March 6):

The story is not whether statistics document a drop in teenage abortions after passage of parental involvement laws.

The real story revealed in your article is that abortion-clinic workers have witnessed parents threatening physical violence against their pregnant teenage daughters if the girls do not agree to an abortion.

Surveys of women having abortions find that 6 to 8 percent report their reason for aborting is that their parents want them to.

So much for reproductive rights and freedom of choice.

Perhaps we need a new round of state laws protecting teenagers who are coerced into abortion by their parents. Now that would be a story!

Carrie Gordon Earll
Director, Issue Analysis
Focus on the Family
Colorado Springs, March 6, 2006

Here it is, a bit more briefly:

1. We want laws to force teens to tell their parents that they're pregnant if they want to be able to get an abortion---because parents have a right to know and make decisions about their children's medical choices!
   
   
2. We get those laws.
   
   
3. We find out that some parents want their daughters to get an abortion!
   
   
4. We certainly don't conclude that our law is working as planned. No, we propose a new law that prevents parents whose choices differ from our own from realizing those choices!
   
   
5. Summary: when our law works as intended but in the wrong direction, demand a new law to make sure that our original law's effects are prevented from occurring!

At least South Dakota's legislature is intellectually honest.

Note: For the record, I do not think that parents should be allowed to force their children to have undesired abortions. Just as I do not think that religious extremists and their allies should be allowed to force women to carry pregnancies to term.

Update: Ok, I admit "briefly" is probably inapt. So how about "honestly"?