Friday, August 1, 2008

Honestly?

Oh, those pesky California right wingers will stop at nothing to chip away at abortion rights. Although they failed to mislead the voters in 2005 and 2006, the idiots have put up yet another parental notification law - Proposition 4. They used the case of a young woman named "Sarah" to draw attention to the "need" for such a law. Turns out "Sarah" was actually a Texan named Jammie Garcia Yanez-Villegas, a married*, 15-year old mother of one child, who died of complications from an abortion. So, Planned Parenthood is arguing that the information about "Sarah's Law," published in voter information guides no less, is misleading because parental notification laws would not have been "triggered in her case." (May she rest in peace not knowing that her life and death are being used in an effort to endanger young girls in California.)

As Megan over at Jezebel writes,
In other words, right-wingers took a sad story, twisted it to fit the facts they wanted to make their case and are trying to sell a law that will limit a woman's access to abortion services based on false pretenses to California voters who wouldn't otherwise vote for it.
So, who to boycott? Here are the two major (and I mean MAJOR) donors:
James Holman - owner of the San Diego Reader
Don Sebastini - vineyard owner - Smoking Loon

What else can you do to stop the insanity? Educate yourself on the very nuanced issues surrounding parental notification here and here and, if you live in California, vote NO on Proposition 4 and encourage others to do the same.

Lastly, why "Sarah's Law" when the girl's name was Jammie? I'll leave that for you to ponder and come to your own conclusions as the white-washing of her name is fodder for another day...

*In court papers filed in her home state of Texas after her death, the man with whom she lived declared himself her common-law husband in an effort to secure custody of the child. Texas recognizes common-law marriage and does not view a married 15-year-old as a minor, according to an attorney for Planned Parenthood.


h/t Jezebel

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