CA "Friends of Sarah": Notify Parents!

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- Pro-life groups are asking California voters to approve a measure that would prohibit abortions involving underage girls until 48 hours after a parent or other family member has been notified. Proposition 4, commonly referred to as "Sarah's Law," qualified for the Nov. 4 ballot. It will be the third parental notification measure put forward in California in four years. Even though similar laws are on the books in more than 30 states, the two previous initiatives, Proposition 73 in 2005 and Proposition 85 in 2006, were voted down after well-funded opposition led by Planned Parenthood. Proposition 73 failed with 47.2 percent of the vote; Proposition 85 received 45.8 percent. Proposition 4 is sponsored by Friends of Sarah, a committee with major funding by Sonoma County winemaker and former Republican state Assemblyman Don Sebastiani and by Jim Holman, publisher of the San Diego Reader and a major contributor to the previous parental notification measures. The California Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state's Catholic bishops, has endorsed the measure.