California parental notification campaign was outspent 11 to 1

Sacramento, Calif., Nov 12, 2008 / 00:03 am

Backers of California’s Proposition 4, which would have required the notification of at least one adult family member for an underage girl considering an abortion, have issued a statement reacting to the proposal’s defeat.

“Once again, Planned Parenthood and the mainstream media have combined to defeat a common sense proposal to enable parents to protect their daughters,” the statement said.

“Their victory did not come easily or cheaply. The opposition outspent us over 11 to 1,” the statement added, claiming opponents had spent more than $8 million on “deceptive ads and other campaign tactics.”

The Yes on 4 campaign named as its opponents Planned Parenthood, the California Nurses Association, the California Medical Association, the National Organization of Women, the ACLU, and the California Democratic Party.

The campaign said opponents’ “deep-pocketed institutional funding” overwhelmed its resources, which it claimed were already limited by “donor drain” caused by both other high-profile campaigns and by the instability in the financial markets.

According to the campaign, it has received many encouraging calls and e-mails and suggestions for future action.

“We welcome these messages, as it shows that this effort was more than just a single campaign; it is a part of a movement among Californians to wrest the care of our children back from Planned Parenthood and its ilk, whose idea of helping young girls is to give them a secret abortion and send them back into the same exploitive, abusive, or simply unhealthy situation they were in before.”