Los Angeles Times Profiles Publisher, Proposition 73 Supporter James Holman
The Los Angeles Times on Monday profiled James Holman, a newspaper publisher who has contributed more than $1.1 million of the almost $1.8 million raised in support of Proposition 73, which will appear on the Nov. 8 special election ballot.
Proposition 73 would amend the state constitution to require health care providers to notify a parent or guardian 48 hours before performing an abortion on an unmarried minor.
Holman, who is Catholic, publishes four Catholic newspapers and the secular weekly the San Diego Reader. He declined to be interviewed for the Times piece (Warren, Los Angeles Times, 10/12).
In related news, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) opposes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) agenda for the special election campaign, including his endorsement of Proposition 73, Feinstein spokesperson Howard Gantman said Friday, the AP/San Jose Mercury News reports (AP/San Jose Mercury News, 10/14).
Proposition 73 "will not build the trust essential among teens, their parents and their doctors to assure parents the safety and health of their child," Richard Pan, a pediatrician and vice chair of the California Medical Association's council on legislation, writes in a Sacramento Bee opinion piece.
A pregnant minor "doesn't need a judge; she needs a trusted counselor and a caring medical professional," Pan writes. However, he continues, Proposition 73 "threatens physicians with being criminals" for "provid[ing] that help."
According to Pan, groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the California Nurses Association, and CMA oppose Proposition 73 because it would put "the safety of thousands of California's most vulnerable teenagers" at risk. Pan concludes that the measures included in Proposition 73 "sound good by providing a false sense of control over a teen, but, in the real world, they leave girls in need alone, frightened and in real danger" (Pan, Sacramento Bee, 10/15).