|
Saving Sarahs
New Calif. Parental Notification Bill
BY ROBERT KUMPEL REGISTER CORRESPONDENT June 29 - July 5, 2008 Issue |
Posted 6/24/08 at 11:33 AM
SACRAMENTO,
Calif. — If at first you don’t succeed — keep trying to save lives.
California
pro-lifers lost two ballot initiatives to require parental notification for
abortions in 2005 and 2006. In 2008, California’s pro-lifers are back with
Sarah’s Law, a similar initiative.
This
time, pro-lifers hope the legislation avoids concerns about abusive parents by
changing the requirement to read that “an adult family member” be notified for
minors seeking abortions.
Named
for “Sarah,” a 15-year-old girl who died from complications after having a
secret abortion, the 1.2 million signatures needed were certified on June 2 for
the November ballot.
A
pro-life coalition, the Friends of Sarah led by publisher Jim Holman and
winemaker Don Sebastiani, have sponsored the initiative, which was written by
Katy Short, an attorney with the Life Legal Defense Fund.
The
biggest battle lies ahead, since their main opponent, Planned Parenthood, has
more money to spend and is likely to spend as much as it can to stop any and
all laws that would bring any restrictions to abortion on demand.
Friends
of Sarah spokeswoman Grace Dulaney says that the new proposition was written to
address the concerns raised against previous consent initiatives.
“In
our opinion, they were unfounded,” she said, “but the opposition was quite
vocal with questions like, ‘What about the girl who’s going to go home and get
beat up by her parents who were notified?’ The new notification is now ‘family
notification,’ so that if the girl expresses fears of repercussions or abuse if
the doctor notifies her parents, and an adult family member can be notified
instead, such as a grandparent or aunt or adult sibling. I wouldn’t say that
the people behind this are pro-life. We are pro-family.”
Sarah’s
parents were told by doctors that their daughter could have been saved had she
been treated sooner — which would have happened if someone in her family knew
about her abortion.
Repeated
phone calls to communications directors for NARAL (National Abortion Rights
Action League) California, CARAL (California Abortion Rights Action League) and
Planned Parenthood went unreturned.
Rev.
Ignacio Castuera, Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Pomona, Calif.,
did e-mail a statement on behalf of Planned Parenthood’s Campaign for Teen
Safety: “Californians have defeated this initiative twice before because it
puts teens in danger. This isn’t about Church doctrine — it’s about
keeping teens safe.”
Dulaney
said passing Sarah’s Law is the best way to keep teens safe — because of the
danger for all girls getting secret abortions.
“The
doctors need to send a minor girl home with instructions about how to take care
of herself. There’s a case in California where a laminaria was inserted to
soften a girl’s cervix a few days before she was scheduled for an abortion. She
never showed up for the abortion and the laminaria stayed in and she died,” she
said. “There are cases like this going on with major health issues that an
adult needs to know about beforehand.”
She
cited other cases.
“Girls
are going home and told to mop the floor and clean the house and they can’t
tell their parents, ‘I’m not supposed to do something physical, because my
abortion is in two days.’ Or they’ve had surgery and have to go camping with
their family when they need to be recovering,” she said. “The whole thing is
cloaked in secrecy and the girls’ health is at stake.”
Clarke
Forsythe, the President of Americans United for Life, thinks that notification
is extremely important, especially looking at states where such laws are in
force.
“This
will have important repercussions for reducing teen pregnancy, teen abortions
and teen births, as it has in other states,” he said. “There are a number of
professional journals that have verified this.”
One
such study, “Impact of the Minnesota Parental Notification Law on abortion and
birth” by J.L. Rogers, appeared in 1991 in the American Journal of Public Health. It found that after Minnesota’s notification law
was passed in 1981 the greatest decline in pregnancies was in minors age 17 or
younger.
The
California Catholic Conference has not yet taken a position on the initiative.
Spokeswoman Carol Hogan explained, “It just qualified for the ballot and the
bishops are developing a pastoral statement. When that comes out I can
comment.”
Dulaney
can’t fathom how opposing this measure makes any teenage girl safer.
“This
is not tampering with anyone’s rights of reproduction. It’s just notifying an
adult,” she said. “Maybe that adult will go on to say, ‘Hey, she needs a
curfew’ or ‘She shouldn’t be dating adults when she’s only 14.’ One study in
California showed that in about 75% of teen pregnancies, the average age of the
males who impregnate minor girls under 18 is 22½ years old. These are adult
male sexual predators.”
Robert Kumpel is based in
Valdosta, Georgia.
INFORMATION friendsofsarah.com
Make a Donation now!
Insightful. Informative. Uncompromisingly faithful. The National Catholic Register is more than a newspaper. It’s a cause. Your support for the Register funds important journalism that helps to build a Culture of Life in our nation, and throughout the world. Help us promote the Church’s New Evangelization by donating to the National Catholic Register right now.
Click here to donate
| 
.
