ARTICLES

700,000 Signatures In — 200,000 More Needed

Six Weeks to Go

By Tuesday, March 1, the Parents' Right to Know and Child Protection ballot initiative will have collected about 700,000 signatures from California registered voters.

The initiative — headed for the June, 2006 state ballot — will require that a physician notify a parent or guardian of an under-18 daughter at least 48 hours before performing an abortion on her.

At the present rate of signature gathering — over 50,000 a week — initiative backers should reach 900,000 signatures by March 31.

The Parents' Right to Know initiative was written as a constitutional amendment initiative to put it beyond the reach of the California supreme court which upheld California's parental consent law in 1996 and then blocked it in 1997.

The number of valid signatures required to qualify a constitutional amendment initiative like Parents' Right to Know for the ballot is 598,105. Because of wrong addresses and other errors, organizers of the signature campaign need to collect about 900,000 total signatures by Monday, April 4, to be turned in by the Thursday, April 14 deadline.

More than three million petition sheets have been distributed throughout California.

Thousands of individual volunteers and churches have signed and distributed tens of thousands of petition sheets before and after services and Masses and at prayer groups, rallies, and social events. Response from Christian churches, large and small, and from Catholic parishes has been surprisingly strong and encouraging.

Bishop John Steinbock of the Fresno diocese kindly helped by giving permission to all the pastors of his 86 parishes to allow signature gathering in their parishes for Parents' Right to Know.

Large ads and hundreds of thousands of thousands of petitions have been inserted in Catholic diocesan papers. These include twice in the Sacramento diocese's Catholic Herald, published by Bishop William Weigand; twice in the Oakland diocese's Catholic Voice, published by Bishop Allen Vigneron; once in the San Jose diocese's Valley Catholic, published by Bishop Patrick McGrath; and twice in the San Diego diocese's Southern Cross, published by Bishop Robert Brom.

Ads have appeared and petitions inserted in California Christian newspapers: Good News, Etc. and the Christian Examiner.

"The Parents' Right to Know initiative will be the first pro-life effort to reach the state ballot in California history," said Camille Giglio, executive director of the California Right to Life Committee. "In those states that require parental involvement, many lives and the wellbeing of tens of thousands of minor daughters has been saved. We must achieve this for California."

Giglio counseled, "We can't hope to stop assisted suicide or embryonic stem cell research, if we don't know about abortions performed on our minor daughters. These abortions are a large part of those that kill one third of California's babies."

Paul Laubacher, one of two official proponents of the initiative, said, "Getting signatures to qualify this initiative before April 1 is the most urgent work in the next six weeks to advance a culture of life in California. From their daughter's earliest years, California parents labor to protect and nurture their daughter's physical, emotional, and spiritual well being. For parents who have invested so much in their daughter's welfare, justice demands that a parent be notified before a surgical abortion is performed on their minor daughter.

"Please act now to gather as many signatures as possible. Be sure to send them all in before Monday, April 4, so we will be able to turn in 900,000 signatures by April 14!" Laubacher urged.

To check the weekly Count Down of signatures gathered or to download flyers or other information on the initiative, visit the website: www.ParentsRight2Know.org.

To request petitions, posters, or other information or materials, please call toll-free: (866) 828-8355 or email Janet@ParentsRight2Know.org.

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