By Dave Andrusko

The title of what I gather is a "life style" advice column in the British newspaper, "The Mirror," is "Do I tell my husband I want an abortion?" The column is actually from earlier this fall but it was just nabbed by a search engine that I use.

The specifics are not as important as the larger issue itself: the crucial importance of a life and death decision being made unilaterally by the wife. More specifically, does the public agree?

I knew that way back when, when the question was routinely asked, that a majority of the public was supportive of husbands being informed. As I typed these words, I decided to look online and see if I could anything in the last decade or so. I found this from Gallup.

The question is whether the respondent supports "A law requiring that the husband of a married woman be notified if she decides to have an abortion." In 1992 there was 73% support; in 1996 it was 71%; and in 2003 support was 72%.

In 2005 the question arose because Judge Samuel Alito had been nominated to the Supreme Court. In 1991 he supported a provision in a Pennsylvania law that required, with few exceptions, that a woman must notify her husband before she has an abortion. (The Supreme Court subsequently struck that down.)

Where was the public in late 2005, the time of Judge Alito's nomination? The Pew Research Center did a poll. While I could not find the exact numbers on spousal notification the Pew summary read, "But at the same time it [the public] also strongly favors an array of restrictions on abortion including mandatory waiting periods, parental consent for minor seeking an abortion; spousal notification for married women seeking an abortion; and a prohibition on late term abortion."

Interesting, after all this time and after 54 million abortions, we still overwhelmingly believe that husbands ought not be kept in the dark.

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