Who's your daddy?
If you heard spluttering and yelling coming from the direction of Center City Philadelphia around 1:00 pm today, that would have been me after reading about a truly horrific bill that a state representative in Ohio introduced last month.
The bill, sponsored by Ohio State Representative John Adams, would require a woman seeking an abortion to obtain the written informed consent of the fetus's father. According the law, not knowing the identity of the father is not an excuse. A list of potential fathers would need to be submitted, and paternity tests on the fetus would need to be performed.
The Record Courier quotes Adams as saying, "This is important because there are always two parents and fathers should have a say in the birth or the destruction of that child. I didn't bring it up to draw attention to myself or to be controversial."
The oh-so-enlightened bill does allow for exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest. In those cases, the woman merely needs to present a police report.
Thankfully, the bill seems to have little chance of passing, but just the fact that the bill has eight co-sponsors in addition to Adams is chilling.
Sara in Philly
The bill, sponsored by Ohio State Representative John Adams, would require a woman seeking an abortion to obtain the written informed consent of the fetus's father. According the law, not knowing the identity of the father is not an excuse. A list of potential fathers would need to be submitted, and paternity tests on the fetus would need to be performed.
The Record Courier quotes Adams as saying, "This is important because there are always two parents and fathers should have a say in the birth or the destruction of that child. I didn't bring it up to draw attention to myself or to be controversial."
The oh-so-enlightened bill does allow for exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest. In those cases, the woman merely needs to present a police report.
Thankfully, the bill seems to have little chance of passing, but just the fact that the bill has eight co-sponsors in addition to Adams is chilling.
Sara in Philly
Labels: abortion, women's rights
posted by ACLU of Pennsylvania at 8/02/2007 01:33:00 PM
2 Comments:
Yet another in a long list of reasons I hate my former home state.
I swear, guys, Ohio didn't used to be like this! ID, abortion, voting irregularities... I remember a much more tolerant and intelligent state when I was growing up!
Don't feel bad, it's a small minority of Ohio. Trust me, if legislation like this was proposed in PA, they'd probably get a lot more than eight co-sponsors.
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