Posted on 05/23/2006 9:09:09 AM PDT by Gopher Broke
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 a normal election year. Last year voters only considered several ballot measures supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. All of them went down to defeat, but Proposition 73 received the most votes.
"There was a negativity about the whole special election that had nothing to do with our initiative, Albin Rhomberg, a spokesman for the new initiative campaign, told the Sacramento Bee newspaper. "A good deal of the campaigning was to vote 'no' on everything."
Last year, Planned Parenthood spent $4.5 million to defeat the pro-life proposal and supporters received the most support from James Holman, the publisher of a San Diego weekly newspaper and several Catholic papers.
This year, Holman has given the parental notification campaign $2.2 million to get on the ballot and last year he spent $1.1 million to launch the Proposition 73 campaign, according to the Bee.
"His (Holman's) support means that he thinks this can win," Rhomberg said.
Kathy Kneer, president of Planned Parenthood of California, told the Bee the abortion business is preparing to launch another multi-million dollar blitz against letting parents help their pregnant daughters. They're raised just over $32,000 since January, but can funnel millions into television and advertising campaigns at a moment's notice.
"We're gearing up," Kneer said. "[W]e can't let one individual keep us from our mission to keep California 'teen safe,'" she added, referring to Holman.
In a change from 2005, the ballot measure would not include language saying abortion causes the "death of an unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born" and removes reporting requirements on how many waivers judges grant to teens in supposedly abusive home situations.
ACTION: Visit the web site and lend your support today. Visit http://www.parentsright2know.org or http://www.YESon73.net for more information.
Visit http://www.parentsright2know.org or http://www.YESon73.net for more information.
Cool.
Excellent! Let's hope it passes this time around.
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