ARTICLES
January 2006 ARTICLES
Contents © 2006
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Only Begun to Fight
Parents Right to Know Petitions Back on the Street End of January
In the November 8 special statewide election, over $250 million was spent on the eight ballot initiatives, and they all lost, most by large margins. But the one that came the closest -- within 5.8 percent -- spent the least of all groups for and against. The Yes on 73 committee promoting the Parents' Right to Know and Child Protection initiative spent about $500,000; the No forces spent about ten times this amount, approximately $5 million. This meant a series of TV ads for the No side, none for the Yes forces.
And yet even if the Yes on 73 side could have afforded TV, such money may not have helped. According to sources, for example, in the Los Angeles archdiocesan paper, the Tidings, the "Schwarzenegger referendum effect" may have doomed passage of Proposition 73. The governor's measures and the special election were so unpopular, 73 could not have won, according to political analysts at different sites on the internet.
But this hopelessness gives the Parents Right to Know backers hope. On Wednesday, November 30, the Yes on 73 proponents filed virtually the same initiative with the secretary of state to put Parents Right to Know on the ballot for next November 2006.
The measure will require an abortionist to notify at least one parent of an under-18-year-old before performing an abortion on the girl.
Without the Schwarzenegger effect, with a reinvigorated grassroots effort, and with media materials developed at the end of the campaign, the Yes forces expect to win next November. The more effective grassroots efforts at gathering signatures will help save enough money for TV ads, sources close to the campaign say.
The campaign materials which came in October, only weeks before the November 8 election, include video clips featuring Patrick Warburton of Seinfeld and Kerri Caviezel; radio spots by Ben Stein, Dr. Laura, Robert Davi, and Laura Ingraham; and a page showing taped conversations with each of 90 abortion clinics around the state (see accompanying article).
Visit the website www.YESon73.net to see and hear the video and radio clips. Petitions should be available on January 30. To get petitions mailed to you, call toll-free (866) 828-8355 or email Janet@ParentsRight2Know.org.
SHOCKING TAPES OF 90 ABORTION CLINICS SHOW THEM ENABLING STATUTORY RAPE ALL OVER CALIFORNIA
If you visit the home page of www.YESon73.net you can see some of the most intriguing campaign materials developed in last fall's Proposition 73 campaign.
Click on "Audio Tapes" and you can hear phone conversations between the clinic and someone posing as a 14-year-old asking the abortion clinics to keep secret the involvement of her adult boyfriend.
You can scroll the list and find a clinic or abortion referral office near you.
According to the webmaster of www.YESon73.net, the website will soon have the ability to figure out where your computer is and find the clinic closest to you. You can hear the conversation and read the transcript.