Monday, February 20, 2006

Warning foreign women about American men

Wendy McElroy writes:
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), signed by President Bush on January 5th, contains an almost unnoticed attachment. Subtitle D, also known as the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBA), will become law when VAWA is enacted. ... the IMBA requires American men who wish to correspond with foreign women through private for-profit matchmaking agencies to first provide those businesses with their police records and other personal information to be turned over to the women.

An international broker cannot provide contact or general information on a foreign woman to an American man unless that broker first collects and discloses to the woman the following information about the man:

--every state of residence since the age of 18;
--current or previous marriages as well as how and when they terminated;
--information on children under 18;
--any arrest or conviction related to controlled substances, alcohol or prostitution, making no distinction on arrests not leading to conviction;
--any court orders, including temporary restraining orders which are notoriously easy to procure;
--any arrest or conviction for crimes ranging from "homicide" to "child neglect";
--any arrest or conviction for "similar activity in violation of Federal, State or local criminal law" without specifying what "similar" means.
This is another silly nanny state law. I don't know why anyone wants to give foreigners more rights than Americans. When an American women goes out on a date with a man, no one requires the man to notify her of his arrest record.

Maybe that's next. If so, the law ought to be made more sex-neutral and provide pertinent info to the man, such as current or previous pregnancies as well as how and when they terminated.

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