Proposition 73 Abortion Law Reform

A November ballot initiative that would require parental notification for minors seeking abortions sparked its first public fireworks this week, as supporters and opponents accused one another of lying. In lawsuits filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, foes and promoters of Proposition 73 said information submitted for the official voter ballot pamphlet was false or misleading, and asked a judge to intervene.

I see the whole world differently now that I have a daughter. Before she was born, I wouldn't have given as much consideration to Proposition 73, which would require notification of parents when a minor goes for an abortion. Based on that thumbnail summary, it sounded good to me. That's because I was thinking only one thing: If it were my daughter, I'd want to know. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came down on the same side, albeit clumsily.

Tina Jacobson has a close relationship with her teenage daughter. Shireen Miles and her daughter are close too. Jacobson believes her teen, Karissa, would come to her for help if she became pregnant. Same goes for Miles. But that's where the common ground ends for these two California mothers, who stand on opposing sides of what may be the most emotional -- and littlenoticed -- measure on the state's Nov. 8 special election ballot.

James E. Holman makes his living in the world of alternative newspapers. For 33 years, his irreverent and wildly successful weekly, the San Diego Reader, has needled the city's captains of commerce, government and society. But Holman has also pursued a passion unusual among his brethren in the left-leaning alternative press: a quiet crusade against abortion.

Chaundra Smith got pregnant last spring. Awash in conflicting emotions, she was sure about one thing: Telling her parents wasn't an option. "I just didn't want to disappoint them," the Austin high school senior recalled. But when Smith telephoned an abortion clinic for an appointment, she learned that state law required what she so desperately sought to avoid -- that her parents be notified.

California voters narrowly favor an initiative on Tuesday's ballot to bar abortions for minors unless parents are notified, but are leaning against two prescription-drug discount measures, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll. Likely voters also tilt strongly against Proposition 80, which would impose new rules on the electric power industry, the survey found. The abortion, drug and electricity measures have been eclipsed for months by initiatives sponsored by Gov.

For months, the public debate over Proposition 73 was almost eerily quiet. Short on funds, neither side could afford to make much public noise about the measure, which would require doctors to notify parents of minors seeking abortions and define the procedure as causing the death of "a child conceived but not yet born."

The fear that some girls could be at risk if their parents were told they planned to have an abortion combined with a "just say no" mood among voters to sink the parental notification measure on Tuesday's ballot, strategists who worked on the campaign said Wednesday. Partisans on either side of the abortion debate cited two other reasons, as well, for the defeat of the initiative, Proposition 73.