The national media gave a collective shrug over the news that 39-year old congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA) is pregnant with her first child, and is not married. Though she plans to one day wed the father, she is in no rush and says [1], “There are instances in which you have to do things in reverse order.”
Sanchez will be the first single congresswoman to give birth while in office, and only the eighth in history to have a baby while serving. The hypocritical media could care less.
The last politically-sensitive unwed pregnancy, that of Bristol Palin, received the polar-opposite media treatment. The unwed, pregnant teen daughter of Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endured harsh criticism by the mainstream press.
As of Friday November 21, 2008, the Sanchez announcement was not covered by ABC, CBS, NBC, or CNN, and was only given a brief mention on Thursday, by Fox News Channel's Brit Hume. The Associated Press, The
Unable to resist a jab at traditional values, Morrison states that, “Twenty years ago, it simply wouldn't have been possible – pregnant, single and a member of Congress?... But… the culture wars have been fought to a truce of exhaustion, and 'unwed mother' has been recast as 'single mom..'”
Morrison attributes this “success” to Madonna, Murphy Brown, and … Bristol Palin. “With an act of lower-case congress, she (Bristol Palin) and her boyfriend shushed a censorious chorus on the right that had demonized unwed motherhood and appeared to believe that the only thing more morally dangerous than unplanned single parenthood was Planned Parenthood,” writes Morrison.
The comparison to Bristol Palin is a cheap liberal shot that doesn't hold up. Palin did not plan to get pregnant out of wedlock and did the noble thing by choosing to carry her baby to term. Sanchez, an elected public official, opted to put her biological clock first.
Sanchez has been with boyfriend Jim Sullivan for over a year, and is waiting to get married because she wants “the big wedding” and “that's going to take some time to plan.” The media refused to question the obvious self-serving nature of that statement. The Washington Post's [2] treatment simply celebrates, “Have times changed, or what!”
The unwed, pregnant congresswoman was recently re-elected to her fourth term in southeast Los Angeles County and serves in the Congress with her sister, Loretta Sanchez (D-CA). Sanchez decided to get pregnant at the advice of her doctors, who told her not to wait much longer if she planned to be a mother. She got the news in September, and is due May 21st.