Women deserve better

Aria Branch's piece entitled, "An assessment of Alito" was anything but. She says very little of the Judge at all, except that if he is confirmed, "the future for women in this country could be very bleak." This commentary was really about abortion, and why women so desperately need this "freedom." The unwritten suspicion of the author is that if Alito has his way our nation will return to the dark ages of back alley doctors and unsafe abortions. The problem, of course, is that no evidence whatsoever is given for this. Her sources? TV, The New York Times, and the National Organization for Women-all authorities with no agenda whatsoever, of course. Ms. Branch quotes a NOW website claiming Alito is a "judicial extremist," while every witness called on behalf of Alito has testified to the exact opposite. The American Bar Association, in fact, gave Judge Alito their highest rating.

So while this piece contains nothing of substance about its purported subject, Alito, it does contain some startling comments about feminism and the abortion debate: "Equal pay, equal opportunity, equal rights for education for both sexes and reproductive freedom and choice" are what the feminist movement is "all about."

It  is with great concern that I observe that feminists like Ms. Branch, many of whom represent the best educated and most conscientious of American women can  come up with no better agenda to promote than the right to terminate an unwanted  pregnancy. Don't women deserve better?

Andrew McIntyre

Divinity '08