Congress Is Ready to Accept a Single Mom

Rep. Linda Sanchez worries Washington may frown on her pregnancy because she isn’t married, but Patt Morrison, in the Los Angeles Times, thinks things have changed. “Twenty years ago, it simply wouldn't have been possible—pregnant, single and a member of Congress? Oh, the scandal! But the culture wars have been fought to a truce of exhaustion, and ‘unwed mother’ has been recast as ‘single mom.’”

“Who do we have to thank for that? Thousands, from Madonna to Dan Quayle,” Morrison argues. “And, of course, Bristol Palin. She and her boyfriend shushed a censorious chorus that appeared to believe the only thing more morally dangerous than unplanned single parenthood was Planned Parenthood.” The 39-year-old California Democrat, due May 21, says her pregnancy was planned, and she’s “unofficially” engaged to the baby’s daddy. (More Linda Sanchez stories.)