Getting Out to Vote

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Californians vote Nov. 8 on whether to require the notification of a parent or legal guardian 48 hours before an abortion can be performed on a minor. If the measure passes, it will be a win for, among others, 61,000 Knights of Columbus members and 500 Knights councils in the state.

Also strongly backing the measure is Jim Holman, publisher of a San Diego alternative newspaper that refuses abortion and same-sex “personals” ads, and four lay Catholic newspapers. According to an Oct. 17 Los Angeles Times article, Holman contributed $1.1 million to the effort.

But getting to this point was rocky, even for people who believe that abortion is evil. Marvin Hayes, the Knights of Columbus’ state pro-life chairman, saw the merits of the initiative from the outset. He believes that “existing state law is tearing away at the fabric of the family, and this law is the first step in taking back parental responsibility.”

Although Hayes’ views were shared by many Knights, the state leaders were hesitant to back the initiative during much of the qualifying stage, when supporters were collecting signatures to get the measure on the ballot. Two competing initiatives were being proposed, attempting to accomplish the same objective.

The California Catholic Conference, the legislative lobby of the bishops in California, adopted a neutral position on both versions of the notification initiative, fearing the possibility that two competing initiatives would result in the failure of both. In a memo expressing their neutrality, the conference said that “individual Catholics are free to work at signature gathering for a parental notification initiative.”

Previously, in a communiqué, the conference cautioned “individuals and groups inclined to support the effort to qualify ‘a parental notification initiative’ to read the proposed language of both documents carefully.”

One Knight who did so was John Kupski, a long-time pro-life activist and former state pro-life committeeman for the Knights. He came to a different conclusion than the Catholic Conference about the initiative that became Proposition 73 because it included provisions for record keeping, reporting, bilinguality and criminal sanctions for violation of these provisions.

The conference was concerned that these provisions could change the focus of the initiative from a parental rights and child protection measure to one that is anti-abortion, which, in heavily pro-abortion California, might result in its defeat. Kupski maintained that “all of these provisions addressed the reality of the existing abortion situation” and are necessary to protect minor girls and parental rights.

The problem of two competing initiatives ended when the promoters of one never made a serious attempt to collect signatures. This, along with the eventual endorsement by several of the state's bishops, paved the way for the Knights’ state and national leadership to back the proposition and encourage membership to help it in any way possible.

On March 3, then State Deputy Robert Rodriguez issued this statement: “After passing muster with our hierarchy, I have determined that the K of C membership in California should whole-heartedly support this initiative.”

That support has included special training days throughout California to educate members and others about the initiative.

Once Proposition 73 qualified for the ballot with more than one million signatures, the state Catholic Conference endorsed it. It produced a brochure — “They Say, We Say” — which pits statements by the Campaign for Teen Safety for No on 73 against the conference's arguments. For instance, the “No on 73” group asserts that good family communications cannot be imposed by the government. But the state mandates parental permission for a child to go on a school field trip, procure an aspirin and participate in school sports, the conference points out.

“We hold,” said the conference in a statement, “that both the young woman's welfare and society's common good are best served when family communication is promoted in public policy. A minor faced with a serious emotional, psychological and medical decision needs her parents — their love, their wisdom, their counsel.”

In response to the pro-abortion propaganda that scared pregnant teens will turn to self-induced or “back-alley” abortions rather than talk to their parents, the conference brochure asks why they would do so when abortions will still be legal — and they can get a judicial bypass if their family situation is troubled.

The conference also points out that in the 30 states that already have parental involvement laws, there has been no spike in injury or deaths from illegal abortions. What has happened in these 30 states is a reduction in teen pregnancy and abortion.

Knights councils, too, have been taking every opportunity to disseminate materials supporting the measure — at tables outside churches, pancake breakfasts, dinner dances and other social events.

Without the efforts of Knights of Columbus Council 3051 based in Wilmington and the volunteers they recruited, much of this would not have been possible. During the qualifying stage of the initiative, they arranged phone calls to nearly 500 councils to determine how many petitions they needed. Later calls were made to verify they received the petitions.

Council 3051 also mailed an educational package, including yard signs, bumper stickers and brochures. The council and the initiative's sponsors believes what Pope John Paul II held — that the culture of death, which is manifested in current California law allowing a teenage girl to obtain an abortion without any parental involvement, emerged from the crisis of truth that permeates much of the Western world.

The sponsors of the initiative allowed Council 3051 to ship with this packet more than 60,000 copies of a leaflet the council produced that examines American public education's role in the crisis of truth. This leaflet is part of a special project to promote the importance of Catholic education for Catholic youth.

“The willingness of the campaign to allow us to ship these leaflets demonstrated that it recognized that the influence of the culture of death will not diminish until the moral relativity that undergirds it is repudiated,” said Mike Lee, the council's past grand knight.

Lee said Pope John Paul recognized this fact in Evangelium Vitae, where he wrote that “no less critical in the formation of conscience is the recovery of the necessary link between freedom and truth.”

James Coop is based in San Carlos, California.