This important initiative is being sponsored by Friends of Sarah and promoted by Californians and organizations everywhere wishing to support families by reinforcing parental rights. PRKCA supports the 2008 California Child and Teen Saftey and Stop Predators Act, nicknamed "Sarah's Law" in memory of a 15 year old who died from complications within a few days after having an abortion without her family knowing.
This year's initiative is similar to Prop. 85 in 2006. Family notification would allow an adult family member to be notificed, such as an aunt or uncle, grandparent or adult sibling over 21, should there be a case of an abusive parent. Exceptions would be made for emergency medical procedures and by judicial bi-pass in extraordinary circumstances.
Family notification is a common sense measure from many aspects. These include the rights of a parent and families to be notified of any medical procedure a minor child is involved in. In California today a minor cannot receive an aspirin from a school nurse or attend a class field trip without parental permission. Yet a girl as young as 12 can be taken by anyone for a secret
surgical abortion without a single parent even being notified!
The double standard is clear. The only question is why? The answer is simply money and an extreme zeal for abortion on demand.
Why try again?
Some are asking a good question. Why try again after Prop. 85's narrow loss? The reasons are
important ones.
- A very narrow margin: Prop. 85 failed to pass
by only a handful of percentage points.
- Lack of education: An amazing number of voters simply hadn't heard the details of PRK and voted "No" being unsure.
- Deception by secret abortion providers: Their "Campaign for Teen Safety" was very misleading suggesting that parents do not know what is best for their minor daughters.
- Opportunity to promote family-friendly values in trouble spots throughout California
- Sexual Predators Are Still Preying on our Daughters! While secret abortion providers are making millions our minor daughters are paying the price. Weekly in California over a thousand school age girls get pregnant, and 70% of the time by older men. That's statutory rape. It's a crime that without family notification too often goes unreported...
Sarah's Law will:
- Mandate at least 1 parent or adult family member be informed 48 hours prior to a minor daughter, as young as 12 years old, obtaining a surgical abortion.
- Restore parental and family rights to provide good health care options to their minor daughters.
- Because California performs as many as 200,000 abortions annually, family notification should conservatively save thousand of babies from abortion every year.
- Save thousands of teen or more girls from the physical, emotional and spiritual aftermath of abortion.
- Help end the cycle of sexual abuse the vacuum of parental involvement has allowed.
- Protect minor girls from older men coercing them to abort the evidence of statutory rape. As many as 70% of school age pregnancies are fathered by adults averaging 22-23yrs of age.
- Of the 1,000,000 teen pregnancies annually in the US , only 3% choose adoption while 40% choose abortion. Sarah's law will help elevate adoption as a better option.
- Be a state constitutional amendment that cannot be overturned by California 's courts.
- Impose civil penalties on violators as an additional deterrent.
- Contain a "Judicial Bypass" for extreme cases where notifying a custodial parent would cause hardship to a minor daughter.
- Help protect teen girls from premature death as well as physical and emotional anguish including the following:
- California study of Medicaid records comparing over 170,000 women who either aborted or delivered their child. These records, when linked to death certificates for a period of eight years, yielded the following. Overall death from all causes was 62% higher for those who aborted. Death from suicide was 154% higher. Death from accidents 82% higher and death from natural causes 44% higher. Death from AIDS was 118% higher. Death from circulator disease was 187% higher and death from strokes 446% higher. Researchers stratified all results by age and time, and higher death rates persisted over time and across socio-economic boundaries.
- The Los Angeles Times reported that many abortion businesses are "chop shops" where substandard care results in injury and death. One study found that 1 in 10 women may experience immediate complications after an abortion. The health risks to teen's are compounded when their parents are kept out of the loop. For example, good follow up care can hardly be given by those who know their daughter's medical history best, her parents, if they are bared from even being notified there may be a risk.
- Such evidence speaks clearly of the risks of abortion, many of which increase dramatically when teens abort their first pregnancy. One study found instances of attempted teen suicide increased 10 times within six months following an abortion.
- Anti-notification propaganda that would claim a 48 hours waiting period for parental notification is too risky for young girls is more than unfounded. If anything is clear, it is that abortion itself, compounded by youth and secrecy is the true risk to our minor daughters.
- The fact that a majority of states already have active parental involvement laws answers another of the chief objections raised by those currently profiting from secret abortions. To date, the threat of emergency rooms filled with teens having attempted "coat hanger abortions" has not materialized. Rather abortions to teens have decreased.
- With such facts available, its little wonder more than thirty states have active notification or consent laws to help protect children. On the national level, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act by a 270-157 vote. The bill prohibits anyone but a girl's parents from taking her across state lines to obtain an abortion.
Is it legal for churches to support Prop. 4 Sarah's Law?
Current IRS codes make it perfectly clear that churches can participate in promoting nonpartisan initiatives tha address moral and ethical concerns.
click here for PRK Letter from Pacific Justic Institue
Sarah's Law materials are provided free of charge by Friends of Sarah. For more information call 866-828-8355.
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