Just what is an undue burden? Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said today that requiring the National Security Agency to seek court approval before allowing them to secretly wire tap US citizens would present an undue burden.
Let's think about that for a moment. As the law stands right now the NSA can eavesdrop on the private conversations of US citizens for up to 3 days (72 hours) without seeking a warrant.
The President and his Attorney General don't think that's good enough. They want to be able to spy on US citizens secretly, and apparently indefinitely. Even though the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is said to almost never refuse a request -- which brings me back to the question of undue burden.
As a lifelong feminist, I think it's an undue burden for women to have to wait 24 hours before they can have an abortion. I think it's an undue burden for a young woman to need approval from her parents before she can seek an abortion. For women who must travel sometimes as much as 100 miles to get to a doctor who provides abortion, asking them to wait 24 hours after consulting with the doctor seems like an undue burden to me.
I have an idea! Why don't we let women and young girls go ahead an have an abortion, and then give them 72 hours to decide whether or not to let their boyfriend/ husband/ parent(s) know!
Don't agonize, organize ... that's my mantra. Change won't happen unless you work to make it happen! But sometimes even your best efforts don't provide the results you were looking for. Or sometimes a situation is just so completely outrageous that all you can do is say ... YIKES!
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