Proposed Ballot Measure Seeks To Require Parental Notification
Supporters of a proposed ballot initiative to require parents to be notified before unmarried minors could undergo abortions say they have collected more than one million signatures to qualify the measure for the November statewide ballot, the Sacramento Bee/Monterey County Herald reports. The secretary of state has until June 29 to certify that 598,105 signatures are from registered voters for the measure to qualify for the ballot.
The proposed measure is based on Proposition 73, which was defeated in the November 2005 special election (Hecht, Sacramento Bee/Monterey County Herald, 5/20). The measure would have amended the state constitution to require health care providers to inform a parent or guardian 48 hours before performing an abortion on an unmarried minor. Under the measure, a girl could have sought a judicial bypass and would have received no-cost legal counsel, a confidential hearing and a ruling within three days on whether she could receive an abortion without notifying her parents.
About 47% of voters favored the proposition, while 53% voted against the measure (California Healthline, 11/9/05).
The proposed measure eliminates language that defined abortion as resulting in the "death of an unborn child, conceived but not yet born," a definition that opponents of the measure said could have been used to further restrict abortion rights. In addition, the proposed measure eliminates a provision from Proposition 73 that would have required reporting on how many judicial waivers judges approved.
San Diego publisher James Holman since the beginning of the year has loaned $2.2 million to the campaign in favor of the measure.
Kathy Kneer, president of Planned Parenthood of California, said the group is preparing fundraising efforts to oppose the proposed measure (Sacramento Bee/Monterey County Herald, 5/20).