Something worth blogging: California—vote NO on 85!

A note to my fellow Californians with a special call-to-action for all California-based bloggers.

This morning I had the privilege of attending a Planned Parenthood fundraising breakfast in Palo Alto. On the agenda were many important topics concerning women's reproductive rights and sex education, but the most pressing to me was Prop 85, specifically: voting NO on Prop 85.  If you aren't familiar with the proposition, please check out the No on 85 website or click on the green button on the upper-left corner of my blog.

One of the speakers, Shelby Knox, and her condom tote.

In a nutshell, Prop 85 is Prop 73 (remember Prop 73?) minus 300 words. Prop. 85 would prohibit abortions for California teens until 48 hours after their parents have been notified. According to a recent poll, anti-choice zealots are ahead (46% support, 43% against). That is much too close for comfort for me personally. If passed IT WILL GO INTO EFFECT in February.  It's a constititional amendment and the only way to get rid of it would be to repeal it. Imagine how hard that will be to accomplish if it passes.

Dian Harrison, The Planned Parenthood Golden Gate President and CEO this morning said, "You best believe if this passes, (these groups) will go after birth control next." (Just think if teens had to ask parents' permission to obtain birth control...)

If your daughter came to you and told you she was pregnant, perhaps you'd be supportive and try to help her figure out next steps. But think about teens that live in households with violence, rape, incest or abuse. Prop 85 puts those teens in danger. Passing Prop 85 will not instantly make their family situations better. No law can mandate family communication.

As I sat and listened to the various speakers this morning, I wondered what I could do to spread the word that this initiative must be stopped.  The easiest thing for me to do on short notice (and in light of this recent poll) is to use the power of my blog and the blogosphere to spread the word that people must vote on Tuesday, and they must vote NO ON 85. And that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Bloggers, I need your help!

As you read these words, I am arranging a conference call with Margaret C. Crosby, Attorney, ACLU. She spoke today and has been pivotal in trying to defeat this initiative. She has worked on women's rights issues for 30 years. If you are interested in listening in, it will take place at 11:00AM tomorrow (friday). She will speak on the initiative (and what she says will chill you to the bone), and then there will be time for a Q & A.

This is an opportunity for you to hear from someone on the No on 85 front lines and to ask her questions. It's an opportunity for you hopefully formulate your own No on 85 stance and blog about it.

It's "citizen journalist time."

Ms. Crosby candidly told me today she was "scared' about the proposition passing. If she's scared, there is a real possibility that Prop 85 will pass. Unless we do something about it.

If you are interested in participating and then blogging about this issue (and I hope you are), please let me know.  And please foward this post to any California-based blogger that also might be interested.  Just have them contact me at citymama at gmail dot com with the phrase "No on 85 Conference Call" in the subject line," I will get the conference call details to them.

In the meantime, I urge you to email/call/talk to everyone you know who you think might vote no on 85 and tell them to do so. ("Preach to the choir," as someone mentioned today, and get "the choir" out and voting.) 

I hope you will help me to defeat this proposition,

Stefania

P.S. If you live near Redwood City, you can stop by the PP Clinic at 1230 Hopkins to pick up a lawn sign.

Comments

[wordgirl]

I don't live nearby, but I can tell you that the passing of Prop 85 will bring our country one step closer to being the theocracy GWBush wants it to be.

[Stefania Pomponi Butler/CityMama]

Wordgirl, yup. All hail the "Pastor in Chief" as Dubya is called in Christian Right circles. That scares the pants off me more than anything.

[Amy]

I've already voted on this one (emphatically no) as I will be out of town on election day and so voted by absentee.
It is so annoying to me that the same measures are on the ballot over and over again!

[Jules]

Hell yeah, girl. Though only about 5 people read my blog, at least 2 of them are from California, so I posted about this, too.

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/6683192

Thanks SO MUCH for spreading the word and using your blogebrity to make it known.

HEAR-to-the-muthafuckin-HEAR.

[Feminist Mom]

Thank you for spreading the word about this!!

[gena]

Yikes! We need to get the message out there. This is really alarming. If the Goverment owns my womb-- do I get a tax break. . .

[lia]

Can't be on the call BUT I will blog about it this morning.

[kat]

i'm definitely going to blog about this and link to you. and for sure i'm going to pick up a lawn sign.
THANK you for this. i truly support voting NO.

[MP]

Oregon has a similar ballot measure. Measure 43. Terrible! And while I would hope that my child would tell me if she ended up pregnant as a teenager, I think it's wrong to FORCE her to tell me. I think if these measures become law then more teens will find ways of skirting the system - to the potential detriment - and/or many more unwanted children will be born, which is unbelievably unfair to the kids (because I personally think that many of these teens will opt to keep their babies instead of putting them up for adoption, or the parents of the teens will take the babies on and household will be turned upside down).

I came from a very stable, loving family. But at 17 I got pregnant and chose to abort. I didn't tell my parents. Not because I feared they would kick me out or abuse me in any way, but because I feared upsetting them. I wanted to take care of this on my own and put it behind me. I wasn't ready to be a parent. I had plans to go to college (which I did) and a baby wasn't an option for me. I didn't even think about having the child and putting it up for adoption. I was too embarrassed and not strong enough to deal with publicly being pregnant. THAT'S what teens think about: themselves. My parents eventually found out, we all cried, and put it behind us. It's never mentioned. AT.ALL. Do I regret the abortion? No. I regret being stupid enough to get pregnant in the first place, but having the abortion was the right decision for me at the time. I've never forgotten it, but it doesn't affect my everyday life. I've since gone on at gotten married and have two children. My life is as it's supposed to be. But had it been law to notify my parents beforehand, things might have turned out much differently for me. Worse. I would have either lied about my age to avoid it, or gotten a friend to pretend to be my parent, giving her address as my own, or SOMETHING. Teenagers are all about deny deny deny. And I was a NORMAL teenager from a good home. Just think about the less fortunate ones who have bigger fears and troubles at home

This law is a BAD IDEA. Vote no for it in Oregon AND California.

[Christine]

I love that buzz-term libs use... "anti-choice zealot". Whatever.

I am Pro-Life for myself, and Pro-Choice for everyone else. BUT- the "right to choice" applies to ADULTS. NOT CHILDREN!!!

If there is a pregnancy as a result of rape, abuse, etc... then that crime NEEDS to be reported.

Can you imagine how many people get away with these things because they are never reported in the first place?

I know, because I was sexually abused by my mother's boyfriend from the ages of 13-17.

Thankfully, I never got pregnant.

At least with this law, if I HAD gotten pregnant then, the scumbag most likely would have gone to prison.

Just think about that.

[Stefania Pomponi Butler/CityMama]

Christine,

The people supporting this proposition are: 1) pro-life/anti-choice and 2) right wing and/or evangelical christian "zealots" (Rob Arkley,
The Traditional Values Coalition,
Evangelicals for Social Action,
Right to Life of Central California) and 3) trying to take away women's rights and 4)trying to overturn Roe v Wade.

I don't know about you, but I didn't sign up to live in a Church-state where born-agains get to dictate what I do with my body.

[Christine]

Well, maybe the term should be "anti-abortion", not "anti-choice", then. Because while I am against most cases of abortion, I believe that ADULTS can make their own informed descisions - or "choice" as it were.

This proposition is not telling YOU what to do with YOUR body. It's a proposition to protect young girls.

Teens don't have an inherent RIGHT to choice. They just don't. That's why we have an age of consent. Because, at that pre-determined age (in CA, 18) it is understood that you, as a person know enough about life, and consequenses to make your own descisions.

Maybe the age of consent should be lowered. I don't know. But as it stands right now, a 13 year old could get pregnant by her 19 year old boyfriend - and he could take her for an abortion. Her parents would be none-the-wiser.

I just cannot agree with the fact that school nurses can't give that same 13 year old an aspirin without notifying the parents. But a doctor could perform a possibly life-risking procedure, and the parents would have no idea?

What about the required follow-up appointments, aftercare, pain management? How is that being handled now? I suspect, it isn't - at least not very well.

But again, that's just me. And I voted Yes.

[Stefania Pomponi Butler/CityMama]

Christine, I am going to respond to your comments momentarily in a separate post. Because what you are saying here simply is not true.

[honglien123]

I have dutifully posted for my 6 readers and have badgered all voting capable family to vote No on 85. I've had friends who have been in this situation and in some situations, they were beaten and the decision to keep the baby or not was taken out of their hands. This prop. is such a bad idea.

[anon]

so, you're saying that if bunny or wallie got pregnant at age 15, you couldn't care less that they kept it to themselves and went and aborted it without telling you a thing? Mmmkay..

[Green]

Hi Christine, and Anon 12:02:

I tried to post a comment yesterday but the computer ate it, so I'm trying again.

Anon, I know the CityFamily, and I truly think that both parents would care VERY much if the girls got pregnant and dealt with the pregnancy however they wanted without telling them. But mostly CityParents would be upset with THEMSELVES, for having somehow missed creating a relationship with the girls where they'd feel comfortable coming to them with any problem they might have. I doubt either CityParent WANTS the girls to become pregnant when they're teenagers. But they do want all choices to be available to them. And really, have you seen the bubble commercial? Because CityFamily is the first family, not the family over the fence that the bubble travels to.

Hi Christine. You are confusing me. What I don't understand is why you think that an abortion would scar a teenager for LIFE, but having a baby wouldn't. In the homes where a teenager doesn't feel comfortable coming to her parents about a pregnancy to the point that she doesn't want to tell them she's aborting, do you REALLY think that same home is going to welcome another mouth to feed? Another person to clean up after and keep healthy? Life is not a Lifetime movie, where at the end of two hours the (grownup) mother will embrace grandmotherhood with zest and care for the baby of her 15 year old daughter, while the daughter goes to high school and then on to college, and where the mom and grandmom smile at each other over the crib of an infant that just screamed for four hours in the middle of the night.

Not everyone who has an abortion lives with searing guilt for the rest of their lives, as they shouldn't. But if they had a kid, they'd be a mother for the rest of their lives, which I'm sure you would agree, would change considerably.

I don't understand why you think a 13 year old can't have an abortion, but they CAN have a CHILD. Granted, getting pregnant at 13 by a 19 year old is not an ideal situation in and of itself, but at a certain point you have to accept that these things are happening.

Christine (are there two Christines?): I'm sorry you were abused for your teenage years. Of COURSE your scumbag abuser should have gone to prison. I don't think anyone thinks that crimes against children shouldn't be reported. There's no evidence that they DON'T get reported by the people who are required to report them though. You need to read further into the layers to see that, but it's there.

[waystoinducelabor]

I don't live in California but I see this as a very important issue and will be watching to see if this gets on the ballot in my state.