SACRAMENTO — The campaign has yet to begin, but voters appear to support — at first blush — a ballot measure to require parental notification for pregnant minors who seek an abortion.
In a Field Poll released earlier this week, 48 percent supported Proposition 4, and 39 percent opposed it. The poll, which surveyed 672 voters likely to participate in the November election, had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.6 percentage points.
Previous incarnations of parental notification measures were defeated twice in California in 2005 and 2006. Has there been an attitude shift?
Supporters say it is a shift in language. A newly added provision would allow teens in abusive home situations to have their physician notify another family member that they're seeking an abortion.
Previous ballot measures required teens to notify their parents, regardless of whether they came from an abusive home.
"This was designed to address the concerns raised about girls from abusive homes," said Katie Short, co-author of Proposition 4 and legal director for the Life Legal Defense Foundation. "This assuages a lot of peoples' concerns. The opposition played directly to that fear last time, and we've addressed it. If people pay attention to the details and don't just see this as 'oh, here we go again,' we should win."
Proponents may not want to get their hopes too high, though. California has a long history of allowing minors access Advertisementto health care services — including abortions — without parental notification. In addition to the two ballot measures struck down by voters, the state Supreme Court struck down a 1987 law, under Gov. George Deukmejian, requiring parental notification for minors' abortions.
The early support is a reflection of "every parents' natural reaction" that they'd want their daughters to talk to them, said Kathy Kneer, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of California and campaign manager for the opposition campaign, the Campaign for Teen Safety, No on 4.
Voters will turn against it, Kneer said, once they realize the provision allowing the physician to notify another family member is rife with problems.
A minor can only use that option if a physician files an abuse report with law enforcement — either the local police department or child protective services.
"What's law enforcement going to do? Come and visit the family," Kneer said. "I don't think the teen's going to want to risk that. We don't feel like it's a viable option. It just doesn't work in the real world."
And, if the measure passes, parents of teens who got abortions without their consent would have up to four years to sue the physician — a "huge barrier for doctors," Kneer said, "to not providing safe, legal abortions for minors. This still fails to protect teens and it creates legal threats to health providers."
The pro-Proposition 4 forces — Friends of Sarah: The Parental or Alternative Family Member Notification Law — have raised a little more than $2 million, but the group now has $276,000 on hand after the costs of gathering signatures to get the measure on the ballot.
The Campaign for Teen Safety, backed largely by Planned Parenthood organizations across the state, has $3.1 million on hand, and more support is expected from labor organizations and other liberal groups.
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