By Hilary White
LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Voters in California yesterday defeated Proposition 73, a ballot proposal that would have required abortion facilities to notify parents of underage girls seeking abortions. Under current California law, thousands of minor girls seek abortions each month without their parents’ knowledge. In a close vote, the proposition was defeated 47.4% to 52.6%. In other states with parental notification laws, teen abortions have been reduced by as much as 30%.
Pre-election surveys showed strong support for Proposition 73 among impoverished blacks and Hispanics, groups that are traditional targets of the abortion industry. A study of 46,000 pregnant school-age girls in California found that 71 percent of the fathers were adults, with an average age of 22.6 years.
Bill May, Chairman of Catholics for the Common Good said that the defeat of Proposition 73, which would not have required parental consent but only notification, was a blow to poor people struggling to protect their families. “Prop 73 was a proposal to do what is working well in 34 other states. Unfortunately, the financial interests of Planned Parenthood’s doctors and management prevailed over that of children, parents, and families in California,” he said.
A local Los Angeles blogger who writes under the name Quintero, said that Hispanics in his community, led by the extreme leftist and pro-abortion Spanish-language television, overwhelmingly voted against the proposition. “In my Mexican barrio where my polling station is located, the turnout was incredibly strong. Millions of Latinos—even viejitas [little old ladies] who pray their Rosary to the Virgencita every day—cast their votes against Prop. 73.”
Quintero identifies the indifference of the Catholic clergy as a major factor in the failure of the proposition. In a situation that is familiar to Canadian pro-lifers, despite their official “endorsement” of the proposition, the Catholic bishops and clergy of California showed little interest in actively working to support it.
Quintero writes, “There was little or no mention of the ‘Parental Notification’ ballot measure in the several parishes in my part of town. And even in those parishes where it was mentioned, support for it was, at best, anemic.”
In the November edition of Canada’sÂnational pro-life newspaper, The Interim, a centre-spread photo essay identifies the past inaction and indifference of many Catholic bishops and clergy as one of the most significant contributors to the contemporary abortion crisis.