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June 14, 2006
Parental notification initiative calls to churches for support
The wall of separation continues its erosion:
Organizers of parental notification petition call on churches for support 06/08/2006 Ed Langlois SALEM — Organizers of a drive to require parental notification before abortions on minors are putting out an 11th-hour call to qualify their proposal for the November ballot.The Committee to Protect Our Teen Daughters is asking churches, expected to be the major source of petitions, to turn in sheets by June 20. By July 7, the campaign must give 76,000 valid signatures to the Secretary of State.
The campaign is not specifying how many signatures have come in so far.
“We still need more. We are doing well,” says Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, the group leading the effort.
Because about 7 percent of all petition signatures in the state are usually nixed because of authenticity problems, organizers want to buffer their offering to elections officials with an extra 50,000 names.
The campaign will accept signatures up until the last moment in July, but prefers to have them by June 20 to have time to verify.
Starting early in May, the organizers began hiring paid signature gatherers. Before then, the focus was on churches. Many Catholic parishes have circulated petitions.
If this isn't illegal, it ought to be. Churches are exempt from paying taxes because they aren't supposed to be using their resources to exercise political power.
This appears to be directly in conflict with that separation.
Its interesting to me that the story in question also notes that roughly 65% of those asked to sign the petition are doing so. That number seems high for Oregon--unless they're focusing outside the metro areas. Oregonians have a tendency to take a hand's off approach with social issues like this, in general.
One step closer to theocracy.
Posted by Carla at June 14, 2006 10:23 AM
