SUGGESTED PULPIT ANNOUNCEMENT

Re: Proposition 85

On Election Day, November 7, voters in California will have the opportunity to vote on Proposition 85, which will protect the rights of parents to know if their minor daughter has made an appointment to get an abortion. You should vote “Yes” for Proposition 85.

Under our current laws a minor girl under the age of 18 cannot leave school without her parents’ permission, even to go on a field trip. She cannot get her ears pierced, or get a tattoo, or get a flu shot, or have a cavity filled. She cannot even receive an aspirin from the school nurse without her parents’ knowledge! Yet that same child can be taken off campus by a stranger to an abortion mill, put under general anesthesia and have a surgical or chemical abortion performed on her without her parents knowledge!

This obvious lack of logic in our current law undermines parents’ relationships with their children. Parents have the “right to know” that their child is scheduled for a medical procedure! Beyond this, another sickening issue is being swept under the carpet by our current “right to privacy” abortion law. In a study of over 46,000 pregnancies of school-age girls in California, it was found that over two-thirds were impregnated by adult men whose average age was 22 . So, the “right to privacy” of a 12 or 14 year old girl is currently superseding a “parent’s right to know” and is allowing tens of thousands of cases of statutory rape and incest to go unreported.

Over thirty states currently have some form of notification or consent and have seen a dramatic drop in teen abortions and teen pregnancies the very next year as a result of their change in law. In California the Legislative Analyst estimated that parental notification could reduce the number of abortions in our state by 5,000-10,000 per year.

Thank you for your support and prayers. Remember to vote “Yes” on Proposition 85 on November 7, and get as many others as possible to do so as well.