California Voters Reject Parental Notification on Abortion Second Time

LifeNews.com
Nov. 09, 2006

Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- In the state of California voters rejected a parental notification measure for the second time. They rejected the idea by a 53-47 percentage vote last year and this year voted against it by the same percentage. With a pro-abortion state legislature and voters who are more pro-abortion than the nation in general, pro-life groups will need to find other ways to reduce the number of abortions and help parents protect their teenage daughters.

Pro-life groups previously lost a battle on the ballot regarding taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research and the state legislature is expected to continue to try to legalize assisted suicide, making California a tough state for people with pro-life values.

Backers of the proposal were outspent by Planned Parenthood, which spent $3.7 million running an ad that claimed the notification measure provides no options for teenagers who come from abusive home situations and want to have an abortion without their parents' knowledge.

In the ad, an unseen man in a whispery, confidential voice claims “Prop 85 would force girls to notify an abusive or violent parent that they are pregnant and this puts them in real danger.”

But Mike Byrne of the Yes on 85 campaign said the television commercial "includes explicit lies as well as implicit and deliberate misrepresentations intended to confuse and deceive California voters into voting no on Proposition 85."

"The truth is, Prop 85 requires, with several exceptions and waivers provided, that a doctor, at least 48 hours before performing the abortion, notify one parent or guardian of an unemancipated child, that their daughter intends to obtain an abortion," Byrne explained.

The ACLU, the California Teachers Association, and Alternative Energy Prop 87 helped the abortion business finance the ad.