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Ban on Gay Marriage Trails -- Voters Split on Teen Abortion Constraints, Redistricting SAN FRANCISCO, California, August 27, 2008 — A majority of California’s likely voters oppose Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that would eliminate gay marriage, according to a statewide survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) with funding from The James Irvine Foundation. Likely voters are divided on two other closely watched measures – one that would require a parent to be notified before a teenager has an abortion and one that would take the power to draw legislative district lines away from...

Sacramento, Aug 11, 2008 / 11:04 pm (CNA).- A California judge has ruled against Planned Parenthood and its allies who challenged the content of a voter information pamphlet’s arguments in support of Proposition 4, a ballot measure requiring abortionists to notify at least one adult relative before performing an abortion on a minor. The arguments reference the story of “Sarah,” a 15-year-old who died in 1994 after suffering complications from a secretly obtained legal abortion, in addition to stories of other underage girls who obtained abortions without their parents’ knowledge.Opponents of the pamphlet’s content argued that Sarah’s story should...

Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates in California are going after a state ballot proposition that would allow parental notification on abortions. They are saying the measure's ballot summary should be changed because the teen the law is named after was married at the time of the abortion that killed her.Named for a 15-year-old girl who died just four days after a legal abortion left her with a torn cervix and fatal infection, Sarah's Law, if approved, will protect the health and safety of young girls.The California Secretary of State qualified Sarah's Law for the November ballot after backers submitted...

Columbus, OH (LifeNews.com) -- Several states have dealt with the problem of judges routinely approving requests for a judicial bypass so teens can get abortions without their parents' knowledge or consent. Now, an Ohio judge has admitted she's never denied a single request from a teen to get around the parental involvement law.The National Right to Life Committee indicates 37 states have parental consent or notification laws and 29 are currently in effect, including Ohio. Most have a Supreme Court-mandated judicial bypass for the rare instances where girls may be victimized by their parents.Hundreds of hearings take place before...

The Roman Catholic bishop of Richmond was told that a diocesan charity planned to help a teenage foster child get an abortion in January and did not try to prevent the procedure. Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo "was told erroneously that everything was in place and there was nothing he could do to stop it," said Steve Neill, Bishop DiLorenzo's communications officer. "He is very apologetic about the whole episode. "It is very awkward, it is very embarrassing. A human life was taken. He certainly has not taken it lightly in any way. He is clearly opposed to abortion." Mr. Neill...

Propositions that are on the November 4, 2008 General Election Ballot* Bond MeasureProposition 1 SB 1856 (Chapter 697, 2002). Costa. Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century.** **Note: The Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century was originally scheduled to appear on the November 2, 2004, General Election ballot. Subsequently, Senate Bill 1169, Chapter 71, Statutes of 2004, provided that it appear on the November 7, 2006, General Election ballot. However, most recently, Assembly Bill 713, Chapter 44, Statutes of 2006, provides for the submission of this Act on the November...

Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- As it has done in past years, Planned Parenthood abortion businesses in California are willing to shell out some of their abortion profits to make sure they can leave parents in the dark about teen abortions. They are, once again, spending heavily to defeat a parental notification measure.Earlier this month, the California Secretary of State validated Sarah's Law, the latest version of the parental notification initiative, for the November 4 ballot.Proponents submitted more than 1.2 million signatures on petitions seeking a third vote on adult involvement in minors' abortions, after Propositions 73 and 85 were...

On November's ballot in CA we will have two very important propositions. The Marriage Amendment and Sarah's Law which is a parental notification law. Please, please, please view this 60 second video and pass it on to everyone you know. Please go to www.FriendsOfSarah.com for more information. Also see National Organization for Marriage California

Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of Richmond, Va., on April 29 wrote a confidential letter to his brother bishops. He recounted how Catholic Charities of Richmond (CCR) was complicit in authorizing, procuring, and paying for an abortion on January 18, 2008. The victims were the mother, a minor immigrant, and her unborn child, who were both under the “protection” of Catholic Charities because the mother was in the country illegally. The bishop’s letter explains that the Committee on Migration (MRS) of the USCCB supplies “foster care support services to undocumented minors in U. S. custody” through an arrangement with two federal...

In January 2008, a minor in foster care in Richmond, procured an abortion while receiving support services from Commonwealth Catholic Charities (CCC). An investigation of this unfortunate event revealed that some members of CCC staff assisted the minor in preparations leading up to the abortion, and that one member of staff signed the consent form necessary for the minor to have the abortion. The minor was taken to and from the abortion facility by a person associated with CCC. Neither agency nor diocesan funds were used to pay for the procedure. A subsequent investigation also revealed that about two months...

Federal authorities are investigating the actions of a Catholic charity in Richmond which helped a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl to receive an abortion in January, in possible violation of Virginia law. Officials have called the matter to the attention of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) headquarters in Washington, urging it to prevent any repetition of the incident. Four employees of Commonwealth Catholic Charities, Richmond, (CCR) have been fired and one supervisor with the bishops' Migration and Refugee Services agency has been suspended, according to federal sources and a secret April 29 letter written by three bishops to 350 bishops nationwide....

Cindi Cook had it all planned out. Her teenage son would graduate from his Hall County high school, go to college, then settle down and start a family. Then came the pregnancy. It was spring 2007 and, according to court testimony, Cook had no interest in her 16-year-old son's girlfriend, also 16, having their baby. Cook "began to pressure until the young lady relented and agreed to have an abortion," DeKalb County solicitor general Robert James said Wednesday. Displeased that the baby would ruin her son's chances of going to college, Cook "searched for a clinic that did not require...

Changes since the last update: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1310. (07-0081) Nonviolent Offenders. Sentencing, Parole and Rehabilitation. Statute. Qualified for the November 4, 2008 General Election 1326. (07-0094, Amdt. #1S) Criminal Penalties and Laws. Public Safety Funding. Statute. Qualified for the November 4, 2008 General Election 1304. (07-0066, Amdt. #1S) Renewable Energy. Statute. Qualified for the November 4, 2008 General Election 1298. (07-0068) Limit on Marriage. Constitutional Amendment. Qualified for the November 4, 2008 General Election Propositions that are on the November 4, 2008 General Election Ballot Bond MeasureSB 1856 (Chapter 697, 2002). Costa. Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the...

Chicago, IL. -- A federal judge refused to allow enforcement of an ill-fated state law requiring teenage girls to notify their parents before getting abortions, potentially ending any chance the decades-old measure will ever take effect. Abortion rights groups on Saturday hailed the ruling on the legislation that was passed in 1984 and updated in 1995 but has never been enforced because of complex legal wrangling. "We're very pleased," said Lorie Chaiten of the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "This should be the end of that law." Anti-abortion forces decried the judge's ruling on the law, which...

Make no mistake about it - when the nation's largest pro-life group endorsed Fred Thompson on Tuesday its goal was to shake up the Republican contest for the presidency. The National Right to Life's endorsement is the gold standard coveted by those Republicans seeking the White House because it bestows a legitimacy and authenticity on the candidate who receives it as the standard-bearer for those who want to end abortion on demand. The Thompson endorsement not only signals how the organization representing 3,000 pro-life groups has grown up, but it shows just how close the country is to seeing Roe...

Your Views November 8, 2007 Questions recreation’s notification policy If you live in Alexandria, have a child in the city’s after school programs run by the department of recreation, and assume you will be called in the event of an emergency — don’t hold your breath. According to Leslie Clark, a Department Division Chief, the department’s policy regarding parental notification is to guarantee that at least one person on a child’s emergency contact form will be called. In most cases, one would assume such a policy is reasonable. But, in cases where child custody is an issue, it becomes an...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 2, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani has tried every trick in the book in order to persuade pro-life voters to consider him for the Republican nomination for president. Now a congressman with a long record of opposing abortion has labeled the former mayor pro-life and said he would have voted mostly pro-life if he had been a congressman as well.Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, says that if Giuliani were a member of Congress today, he'd be considered pro-life."In a hypothetical comparison of congressional votes, Mayor Giuliani's voting record would mirror the voting record of...

HYANNIS, Massachusetts, October 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Massachusetts woman is demanding the authorities take action against an abortionist, who destroyed her daughter's unborn child while she died of cardiac arrest on his operating table. Operation Rescue reports that Eileen Smith has initiated legal action against abortionist Rabin Osathanondh in order to prevent her daughter's cruel death from being merely "swept under the rug" as frequently occurs after abortion tragedies. Smith's 22-year old daughter, Laura Hope Smith, walked into Osathanondh's Women Health Clinic in Hyannis on September 13, 2007, as a healthy young woman engaged to be married before she...

At a time when Manchester state Rep. John W. Thompson is seeking middle ground on the emotionally charged issue of whether an underage girl should have to tell a parent before getting an abortion, the case of a runaway found in West Hartford has added volatility to the debate. During a June 6 search of the West Hartford home of dog trainer Adam P. Gault, 41, police discovered the runaway, Danielle Cramer, 15, in a hidden storage space under a set of stairs. Cramer had been missing from her mother's Bloomfield home for almost a year The case has drawn...

CONCORD, N.H. — Gov. John Lynch signed legislation Friday that made New Hampshire the first state to repeal a law requiring a parent be notified before a minor received an abortion. The 2003 law never took effect because of a court challenge, and the repeal took effect immediately.

CONCORD, New Hampshire, June 8, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The New Hampshire State Senate passed a bill on Thursday repealing a law requiring abortionists to give parents advance notice before aborting the babies of their teenage daughters.The bill passed the Senate with a 15-9 vote, and was passed by the State House in March with a 217-141 vote. Governor John Lynch has indicated he plans to sign the legislation. The now doomed parental notification law placed strict requirements on abortionists when it was passed in 2003, proscribing them from performing abortions on “unemancipated minors” until 48 hours after their parents/guardians had...

LONDON, May 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A bill that would have recognized the right of parents to be informed when their daughter was getting an abortion has failed by a wide margin in the British House of Commons. Tory MP Angela Watkinson had proposed the bill, arguing that sex education only encourages children to have sexual relations and leaves them vulnerable. MPs voted by 159 to 87 against Watkinson’s bill.In the name of ‘confidentiality,’ Department of Health rules keep parents in the dark about potentially dangerous abortions and contraceptives being made available to schoolgirls. In the House, Watkinson argued that...

Concord, NH (LifeNews.com) -- The New Hampshire Senate appears likely to follow state House in voting to overturn the state's parental notification law. Pro-abortion lawmakers have been wanting to scrap the provision, allowing parents to know when their teenager daughters are considering an abortion, even though the Supreme Court essentially upheld it. The notification statue has never been enforced and went all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld it in part, but abortion advocates are moving a measure that would take it off the books. Earlier decisions found the law unconstitutional but the high court ruled that parts...

Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- More details are emerging in a case where a counselor at the UCLA student health center advised a pregnant student to have an abortion. The woman in the case, a pro-life student posing as a pregnant teenager, says Planned Parenthood attempted to advise her to disguise statutory rape. In an undercover investigative story for a student-run newspaper, UCLA student Lila Rose posed as a pregnant 15 year-old and entered a Santa Monica Planned Parenthood. She told officials there that a 23 year old man had impregnated her and her article in The Advocate newspaper says...

After 4 weeks in coma, woman sues abortion clinic NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A Newark woman who said she spent a month in a coma after undergoing an abortion at a Bergen County clinic sued the facility and several doctors there on Thursday. The lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in Essex County against Metropolitan Medical Associates, an Englewood clinic that performs thousands of abortions a year. The clinic was ordered closed on Tuesday by state health officials until it corrects the "immediate and serious" risks. Rasheedah Dinkins, who is still recovering in a hospital, said she regrets having ended...

Hi FRiends. One proposition that is very important to me is Proposition 85, a parental notification referendum. It would be the first strike at abortion in California. Here are the returns so far. We're pulling closer.

Welcome to the live thread for the California Primary Election. Polls are open until 8pm tonight. If you are a registered voter, it is your duty to vote and defend your rights and civil liberties, protect your pocketbook, and vote the bums out where applicable. Feel free to discuss issues key to your local area that others may be interested in. Post your polling place experiences if you like. And post numbers as they come in later tonight.

From Grassfire.org Alliance Going into the midterm elections on Tuesday, Grassfire has learned that Proposition 85, which would require parental notification of teen abortions is currently leading by a margin of 46 percent to 43 percent with 11 percent undecided. This is statistically about the same as the poll numbers in July. ++ Get out the Vote for Prop. 85 Grassfire is urging ALL California team members to vote in favor of Proposition 85 this Tuesday. ++ Action Item--Alert Your California Friends Passage of Prop. 85 would be a key victory for parental rights. That is why we are urging...

LifeNews.com Note: Noelle Patno is Executive Advisor of Stanford Students for Life, the pro-life campus group at Stanford University.Any girl in California under the age of 18 can legally obtain a taxpayer-funded abortion — or be coerced into one — without the knowledge of those responsible for her. Such a legal environment fosters the willful ignorance of possible abuse and grants sexual predators and profiteering strangers the power to preempt parental rights, to pocket the funds of those who do not support abortions, and to endanger minors. Minors are called “minors” because society does not yet consider them mature enough...

Editor’s note: This is the seventh in a series of special preview stories about the 2006 Election. Today: A preview of parental notification votes in California and Oregon. Monday: A preview of ballot initiatives nationwide.WASHINGTON (BP)--Parental notification for an underage girl considering an abortion is a legal requirement favored by three-fourths or more of the American public, but it may not gain approval from the voters of California and Oregon in the Nov. 7 election. California’s Proposition 85, which would require an abortion doctor to notify a parent in writing 48 hours before performing an abortion on a girl under...

Any girl in California under the age of 18 can legally obtain a taxpayer-funded abortion — or be coerced into one — without the knowledge of those responsible for her. Such a legal environment fosters the willful ignorance of possible abuse and grants sexual predators and profiteering strangers the power to preempt parental rights, to pocket the funds of those who do not support abortions, and to endanger minors. Minors are called “minors” because society does not yet consider them mature enough to make important decisions regarding health and safety. There is no reason that abortion should be an exception....

Just as they did with a nearly identical measure last year, Californians until recently were expected to narrowly shoot down Proposition 85, a ballot measure requiring parental notification of a minor's abortion. But days before Tuesday's election, the tide may be turning in the measure's favor, with a Field Poll released Thursday showing potential voters supporting it by a 3 percent margin. A previous Field Poll found the measure behind by 1 percentage point as late as August. A similar measure that failed last year ``was just a victim of overall anger of voters at the reform agenda,'' Republican consultant...

After hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign advertising, voters are souring on initiatives that would enact new taxes on oil production and cigarettes, a new Field Poll has found. Californians surveyed last week and early this week were narrowly against Proposition 87, a tax on oil extraction to fund alternative energy. They were evenly split on Proposition 86, another measure on Tuesday's ballot, which would impose a new levy of $2.60 on each pack of cigarettes to pay for an array of health causes. Proposition 87 dropped four points in support from a poll taken at the end of...

The No on Proposition 85 campaign has begun airing a commercial that argues the parental notification initiative could put pregnant teens in danger from violent or abusive parents.The commercial is running in coastal media markets, including San Francisco, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles and San Diego.Following is the text and an analysis of the ad by Peter Hecht of The Bee Capitol Bureau: •SCENE: In a seemingly tranquil setting of a residential backyard, a bubble floats in the air. It drifts by the house, where raised voices and rumbling sounds from a window suggest violence inside.Woman's voice: "I know...

FRIEND'S ADVICE TO PREGNANT TEEN TAKES A TRAGIC TURN DEAR ABBY: I am extremely shaken by a recent experience, and I want to share this with other parents who may one day find themselves in a similar situation. My daughter, "Mary," is almost 18 and in the 12th grade. We have always had a close relationship. She has always come to me to talk about what's going on in her life -- friends, crushes, school, just about everything. A few months ago, Mary told me about a terrible situation concerning one of her classmates. "Jill" had just learned that she...

Yes on 85 PARENTS’ RIGHT TO KNOW & CHILD PROTECTION INITIATIVE 1703 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101 // Toll-free (866) 828-8355 // email: Janet@ParentsRight2Know.org NEWS RELEASE October 23, 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Albin Rhomberg at (866) 828-8355 Sponsors of Jessica’s Law urge Californians to vote yes on Proposition 85, too 1.2 million California households get phone calls asking: “Vote yes on 83 and 85” The authors of Jessica’s Law are urging those who support strengthening laws against child predators in California to vote yes on a companion ballot measure – Proposition 85, the Parents’ Right to Know &...

LOS ANGELES -- Sister Rosa Gonzales says she can count on receptive audiences when she knocks on doors in Latino neighborhoods to urge a "yes" vote on Proposition 85, the parental notification initiative on abortion. "When they see that nun's habit, they listen," she says. The sight of Sister Rosa walking voter precincts near the Resurrection Church east of downtown Los Angeles is but one illustration of how the Catholic Church and Proposition 85 proponents are targeting a critical constituency: Latino voters. The outreach in Latino communities -- by both anti-abortion and abortion rights forces -- reflects the competitive stakes...

TALLAHASSEE, September 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Laws that require minors to notify or get the consent of one or both parents before having an abortion reduce risky sexual behavior among teens, according to a Florida State University law professor in Tallahassee, Fla. Jonathan Klick, the Jeffrey A. Stoops Professor of Law, and Thomas Stratmann, professor of economics at George Mason University, came to that conclusion after they looked at the rates of gonorrhea among teenage girls as a measure of risky sex in connection to the parental notification or consent laws that were in effect at the time. The researchers...

Is it possible during the tenure of a Republican-controlled Congress and presidency that pro-life legislation with an 80 percent public approval rating won't pass? Yes. And if that happens, the responsibility will rest solely with one man. The measure in question would make it a federal crime for non-parental adults to traffic minor girls for abortions across state lines without notifying her parents. This closes a loophole currently enabling molesters and incest perpetrators not only to kill the evidence of their crime but repeat it. The bottleneck on this bill is the U. S. Senate, where Republican Bill Frist is...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- The Illinois Supreme Court has opened the door to resurrecting a 1995 law that requires parental notification before a minor has an abortion but that has never been enforced. The court released a one-sentence statement Monday announcing its intention to revive the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. The ruling overturns a move by the court in 1996 that effectively killed the law. Justices at the time refused to establish rules for appeals in special circumstances, meaning that the measure could not be enacted or enforced. The current court has only one remaining member from 1996. Court...

California's leading union organization, bucking organized labor's long-standing neutrality on the issue of abortion, is for the first time taking a strong stand in favor of abortion rights. Meeting behind closed doors last month, the California Labor Federation — which represents more than 2.1 million workers belonging to more than 1,100 affiliated unions — voted to oppose Proposition 85, a November ballot initiative that would require doctors to notify parents before performing abortions on minors. In a policy statement, the labor federation also urged the national AFL-CIO "to reconsider its position of neutrality on the issue." Union leaders say polling...

There stands Planned Parenthood, right behind Senate Democrat leaders, whispering seductively in their collective ear the promise of lots of votes and lots of cash. That's an interesting looking wallet Planned Parenthood has. Oh, baby skin. Of course. The addiction to power is arguably the most powerful addiction. This is obviously what's behind the Democrats' obstruction to the Child Custody Protection Act, which would stop non-parents from trafficking minor girls for abortions from states with parental notification laws to states without them. CCPA would also rescue girls from incestuous households by eliminating the loophole around state parental notification laws that...

Last November, Proposition 73 - the parental notification initiative - lost by modest margin, 52.6 percent to 47.4 percent. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger's four reform measures targeting teacher tenure, union dues, legislative district boundaries and state budgeting practices lost by sweeping margins. Now the parental notification measure - which would require doctors to inform a parent or guardian before performing abortions on girls under 18 - is back on the Nov. 7 ballot, as Proposition 85. And this time, Democrats and legal abortion supporters hope the measure - endorsed by Schwarzenegger in 2005 - will help boost his opponent, state Treasurer Phil...

WASHINGTON -- A bill that would make it a crime to take a pregnant girl across state lines for an abortion without her parents' knowledge passed the Senate Tuesday, but vast differences with the House version stood between the measure and President Bush's desk. The 65-34 vote gave the Senate's approval to the bill, which would make taking a pregnant girl to another state for the purposes of evading parental notification laws punishable by fines and up to a year in jail. The girl and her parents would be exempt from prosecution, and the bill contains an exception for abortions...

Senate Passes Interstate Abortion Bill (AP) WASHINGTON A bill that would make it a crime to take a pregnant girl across state lines for an abortion without her parents' knowledge passed the Senate Tuesday, but vast differences with the House version stood between the measure and President Bush's desk. The 65-34 vote gave the Senate's approval to the bill, which would make taking a pregnant girl to another state for the purposes of evading parental notification laws punishable by fines and up to a year in jail. The girl and her parents would be exempt from prosecution, and the bill...

Confidants like grandparents or ministers who help pregnant teens should be protected from prosecution under a bill headed for Senate passage that would punish anyone who takes girls across state lines to end their pregnancies, Democrats said Tuesday. "We should not criminalize the grandparents or clergy members to whom a teen in trouble might turn for help," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who plans to introduce an amendment to protect such confidants from prosecution. But Republicans, reopening the abortion debate ahead of this fall's midterm elections, say Congress must defend the parents' right to know when their children seek abortions....

This is just something that crossed my mind: Why couldn't the United States Congress pass a resolution stating that any organization that recieves taxpayer dollars for "family planning" services must notify parents before an abortion is performed on a minor? This would pretty much force Planned Parenthood, where the overwhelming majority of minors go to recieve abortions without parental concent, to notify parents. Why hasn't Congress considered this? Or is there some reason they can't?

ADF Halts NC Gifted Program's End Run Around Parental Notification Under Litigation Threat, Governor's School Drops Plan to Show Teens Graphic Film (AgapePress) - The prestigious Governor's School of North Carolina (GSNC), a six-week residential summer program for academically and intellectually gifted high school students, is once again being accused of introducing sexually-oriented material to young people without their parents' knowledge. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a nationwide pro-family legal defense alliance, reports that the GSNC was preparing to show students the sexually explicit film, American History X, as part of a "Race and Film" series, but decided not to...

California voters will get a second chance to rule on whether parents should be notified when their daughters seek abortions. They'll also decide whether tobacco taxes should be raised to pay for a variety of anti-smoking and health care programs. Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said Tuesday that both initiatives had attracted enough voter signatures to make the November ballot. They join eight other proposals that previously made the ballot, although a bill moving through the Legislature would move one of those measures, a $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond, to the November 2008 ballot. The abortion measure would require parents...

California Parental Notification Abortion Initiative Has 1M Signatures by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor May 22, 2006 Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- The organizers of a November ballot initiative to allow parents to know when their minor teenager daughter is considering an abortion say they have more than 1 million signatures on petitions to qualify the measure for the ballot. They need nearly 600,000 valid signatures to qualify the measure. The proposal largely mirrors the wording of Proposition 73, which California voters defeated last year by a 52.6 percent to 47.4 percent vote. However organizers say the measure will fare better in...