Prop. 4 Sarah's Law Will Preach!

Some messages were born to be preached. Sarah's Law is just such a message. Pro-Parent, Pro-Daughter, Pro-Family and Pro-Life, Family Notification provides a simple, friendly yet powerful text. In paragraph form here are a some thoughts you may find helpful when talking to family members, friends or a large group..

Our Families mean Everything to Us...

When it comes to protecting our daughters, parents' and family rights, our 2008 CA "Child and Teen Saftey and Stop Predators Act" ranks among the most important issues ever to come before California voters.

Today a minor needs parental consent to take an aspirin from a school nurse or attend a class field trip yet a child as young as 12 can be taken for a secret surgical abortion without even parental notification! The majority of Californians who find this unacceptable now have the power to make parental notification mandatory by law.

Sarah's Law will require abortion centers to notify one parent in writing 48 hours before performing an abortion on a girl under 18.  In cases of an abusive parent an adult family member such as an aunt or uncle, grandparent or adult sibling over 21 may be notified.

Sarah's Law will help protect our minor daughters from a terrible cycle of sexual abuse. In most cases, school age teen pregnancies are fathered by men many years older. Too often these men coerce young girls into unwanted abortions to hide the evidence of their crime. Today California parents are left to heal their child's shattered life without even knowing what has happened to their family. We can help stop sexual predators from continuing their abuse and protect the innocence of our young daughters.

Sarah's Law may save thousands of babies from abortion in California annually and additionally save an equal number of young girls from the traumatic   

physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aftermath of abortion. 

Prop. 4 Family Notification will have the impact of opening dozens of Crises Pregnancy Centers without having to fund them.

      Sarah's Law provides an excellent opportunity for pro-family and pro-life individuals and groups to work together. Considering the challengeson the horizon to traditional values, this initiative provides a good platform for building community consensus and experience in working together for the betterment of California families.

Prop. 4 Family Notification is about Good Medical Care for Teenage Girls

      Good Medical Care Treats the Whole Person

• Her Medical History shows which medicines and procedures are safest for her to use and which ones to avoid.
• Her Relationships offer her emotional support for dealing with surgery and its aftermath.
• Her Follow Up Care depends on those around her being aware of the recovery process and possible complications.

      Sarah's Law Will Help Teenage Girls Get Good Medical Care When They Seek an 

      Abortion. It requires at least one parent or adult family member be notified 48 hours  

      before a minor daughter undergoes the surgical or chemical procedure of abortion.

• Because parents often know their daughter's medical history better than she does.
• Because parents are still often their daughter's closest relationships.
• Because parents offer their daughter the best chance of good follow up care.

      Laws Can't Fix Unhealthy Families:

• That's why Family Notification allows a pregnant minor girl to obtian a judical "by-pass" from parental notification in rare and extreme cases where it could prove harmfull.
• If she fears violence from her parents, for example, or is even pregnant by her father -- she can seek confidential approval for the abortion from the juvenile court.
• Sarah's Law also makes it illegal to force an underage girl into having an abortion. The decision remains hers.

      But Laws Can Protect Healthy Families.

• That's why Sarah's Law requires giving parents a chance to get involved. A 13 year-old girl is physically mature enough to get pregnant by her often 17- or 18- year-old boyfriend. But she is probably not emotionally mature enough to resist his pressure to have a secret abortion: nor to consider all the personal and health implications of pregnancy, adoption, or childbirth.
• Healthy, intact families deserve protection of their right to be involved with their daughters in difficult personal situations.
  

The Law Can*t Stop Teenagers from Having Sex . . .

      That's why Sarah's Law is about parental notice, not parental consent. The same teen who decides to have sex will still decide what to do about the consequences of sex under Family Notification. But just like her decision to have sex might be immature and irresponsibly made, her decision whether or not to have an abortion might be immature and also irresponsible. Family Notification gives parents a chance to help her make an informed decision.

Parental Notice Laws Do Help Prevent Exploitation by Older Men

      Family Notification brings to California a common sense reform already in place and working well in more than 30 states.  That's why Sarah's Law involves parents. A survey of 1,500 unmarried minors having abortions revealed that among minors who reported that neither parent knew of the abortion, 89% said that a boyfriend was involved in deciding or arranging the abortion (and 93% of those 15 and under said that a boyfriend was involved). Further, 76% indicated that a boyfriend helped pay the expenses of the abortion.

Fact: A study of over 46,000 pregnancies of school-age girls in California found that over two thirds were impregnated by adult men whose mean age was 22.6 years.

     Together we possess far more resource and power than is necessary to meet this challenge.  Better still, IRS regulations make it perfectly clear that nonprofit organizations, including churches and religious groups, can promote Family Notification it being non partisan as well as a moral and ethical initiative.     

     Family Notification will help parents and law enforcement in their desperate struggle to protect our state’s minor daughters as evidenced by several  recent NBC Dateline TV programs.  “To Catch a Predator" caught  50 internet sexual predators descending on a single decoy home, in Riverside County, to have sex with minor children within just a three day period!

     By working together today, we can easily replace last year's narrow loss with a great victory for families in California and Protect Our Daughters! For additional information please contact PRKCA Director Rob Pennington by phone at (888) 84-PRKCA or by email at Rob@prkca.org.

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