HTML stripped from Simple Pages

HTML code, viz. link info, is getting stripped from Simple Page. I've added some formatting code to a page:

<h2>Information</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.otis.edu/public_programs/ben_maltz_gallery/womansbuilding.html" target="_new">Doin’ It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman’s Building</a><br />

After saving the page, though, this is what the code looks like:

<h2>Information</h2>
<p><a>"Doin’ It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman’s Building"</a><br />

From this tip, I fixed my problem by editing the configuration of the HTML Purifier to allow a[href]. The links work.

However. What is the point of allowing <a> but not <a href="">? Without the href, the a doesn't do much.