The Democrat-dominated California Assembly passed a bill yesterday containing the most restrictive abortion rules in the nation.

The proposed law would prohibit any abortion for girls under the age of 14. Girls age 14-17 would be allowed to have an abortion only with the approval of a doctor.

Yes, this sounds like something Republicans might do, but not Democrats. Especially in California, one of the most liberal states in the nation. Would Democrats really attempt to limit abortion on demand?

Of course, not. The bill passed yesterday wasn't about abortion. It was about tanning salons.

California, famous for tanned bodies and year-round sunshine, will be the first state to restrict teenagers under 18 at artificial tanning booths if a bill passed yesterday by the Assembly becomes law.

Lawmakers, citing a rise in skin cancer cases in California and across the nation, voted 42-26 to add artificial tanning to the list of teenage no-no's. The bill requires teenagers to have a doctor's prescription before tanning indoors. Right now, California is among 27 states that require permission from a parent or legal guardian for teens ages 15 to 18 to use tanning salons. Children 14 and younger must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Teens like to visit tanning salons before proms, vacations and weddings, according to the tanning industry, which employs 160,000 people nationally and generates $5 billion a year. California is estimated to have 1,500 tanning salons.

But backers of the bill, including the California Society of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery, blame tanning salons, in part, for the 1 million new cases of skin cancer diagnosed every year in the United States. The group said 7,400 people die annually from melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

"There is a big difference between going to the beach and a tanning salon," said the bill's author, Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael. "When kids go to the beach they put on sunscreen."

The thought processes of Democrats continues to awe scientists everywhere. Today, in the state of California, a 12-year-old girl can walk into a clinic and have an abortion -- a major medical procedure -- without her parents' permission, but can't strip down to a bikini and get in a tanning booth if Democrats have their way.

Of course, it gets better. You really couldn't ask for better timing. What's on the front page of today's Washington Post?

Vitamin D Deficiency Called Major Health Risk

Many Americans, particularly African Americans, may be suffering from unrecognized deficiencies of a key nutrient -- vitamin D -- that increase the risk of bone problems and perhaps a host of other diseases, a growing number of scientists say.

Pediatricians scattered around the country have been surprised to see children suffering from rickets, a bone disorder caused by vitamin D deficiency that had been largely relegated to a bygone era. A few doctors have come across adults who were disabled by severe muscle weakness and pain, sometimes for years, until they were treated for undiagnosed vitamin D deficiency. And recent studies suggest low vitamin D may be putting the elderly at higher risk for the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis and life-threatening falls and fractures.

But beyond bone and muscle problems, some evidence suggests a dearth of vitamin D may be associated with an array of more serious illnesses, including many forms of cancer, high blood pressure, depression, and immune-system disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.

In response, many scientists have begun pushing to sharply boost the official recommendations for how much vitamin D everyone should get daily, either by taking supplements, by eating more food that contains the nutrient or from the sun -- a major source of vitamin D. [emphasis added]

Maybe tomorrow the Democrat do-gooders will reverse course and order teens to get into tanning booths. Exactly what do you do when you're the "mommy" party and you have diametrically opposed do-gooding to do?