California Planned Parenthood Spends 700K Against Parental Notice on Abortion
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 20, 2008
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) — As it has done in past years, Planned Parenthood abortion businesses in California are willing to shell out some of their abortion profits to make sure they can leave parents in the dark about teen abortions. They are, once again, spending heavily to defeat a parental notification measure.
Earlier this month, the California Secretary of State validated Sarah’s Law, the latest version of the parental notification initiative, for the November 4 ballot.
Proponents submitted more than 1.2 million signatures on petitions seeking a third vote on adult involvement in minors’ abortions, after Propositions 73 and 85 were narrowly defeated in 2005 and 2006.
In order to defeat the proposal, Planned Parenthood abortion centers created the mis-named Campaign for Teen Safety.
While the organization has received significant funding, new papers from the Secretary of State show the San Jose-based affiliate of Planned Parenthood recently contributed $700,000 to the campaign to defeat parental notification.
Buu Thai, director of public affairs for the group, told the California political web site Politicker that preventing parents from knowing when their teenagers are having a relatively risky surgical or drug-induced abortion promotes their health.
"It’s critical that teens have safe healthcare options," Thai said. "This is what our campaign against the initiative will be about."
Thai told the web site that more six figure donations are forthcoming as Planned Parenthood begins to roll out a massive media campaign to blast the common sense measure.
"This particular donation will be just the first of several as we get closer to November," Thai admitted.
Grace Dulaney, Sarah’s Law spokeswoman, previously told LifeNews.com why the new law is needed.
"Common sense would dictate that some adult in the family be notified prior to an abortion, a serious medical procedure with significant potential health risks," she said.
Named for a 15-year-old girl who died just four days after an abortion left her with a torn cervix and fatal infection, Sarah’s Law will protect the health and safety of young girls and prevent sexual predators from hiding behind secret abortions performed on their minor victims, Dulaney explained.
Physicians in Sarah’s case said that, had an adult family member been aware that she had undergone an abortion, her life likely could have been spared by prompt medical attention.
If approved, the measure would require an abortion practitioner to notify a parent or other adult family member before performing an abortion on a minor girl under the age of 18.
That’s a change from the previous proposals, which required only that parents be notified about the potential law.
Supporters hope it will help the measure get more votes, but some pro-life advocates are not supporting the revised initiative because they don’t think anyone other than a girl’s parents should be told about her abortion. They say the revised measure would keep parents in the dark while a family member who may not know the girl or her parents well would be notified instead.
Dulaney says the law is also needed to help stop the practice of sexual abusers using abortion to cover up their crimes and further victimize young girls.
"Additionally, many of these minor girls are impregnated by adult male sexual predators who, under California law, are hiding their crimes of statutory rape by coercing their victims to have secret abortions," she said.
"Sarah’s Law shows that we don’t have to choose between protecting young girls from the dangers of secret abortions and ensuring their safety at home," Dulaney concluded. "This is a win-win solution. It’s a progressive law for a progressive state."
Related web sites:
Friends of Sarah – https://www.friendsofsarah.com
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