SACRAMENTO, California, March 10, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life activists in California have collected over 700,000 signatures in support of a measure that would require abortionists to notify the parents or legal guardians 48 hours before performing an abortion on a minor.
The sponsors of the Parents’ Right to Know measure, who are seeking to incorporate the policy in California’s state constitution, need to collect just short of 600,000 certified signatures in order to put the issue on the ballot for a statewide referendum. With a month to go before the deadline, organizers hope to collect 900,000 total signatures—enough to ensure that an adequate number of qualified voters’ signatures will survive the certification process.
California pro-lifers have chosen to seek a constitutional amendment because in their previous bid to enact a parental-notification law, in 1987, they gained approval in the state legislature, only to see the law declared unconstitutional by the California Supreme Court.
Proponents of the bill estimate that a parental-notification law would cut the number of teen abortions by as much as 25 percent. In other states, similar legislation has also had the welcome effect of reducing the overall number of teen pregnancies, as young people respond to the legislation by adopting more responsible forms of behavior.