Victory for Choice and Teen Safety: Proposition 85 Defeated

Californians took a tremendous step toward protecting choice and teen safety Tuesday by defeating Prop 85, a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would have required doctors to notify parents 48 hours before terminating the pregnancy of an unwed minor.

“We will take the strength and energy built during this election to protect the health and reproductive rights of women, men, and teens throughout California,’’ said Maya Harris, Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California. “It was a tough fight. We continue to look forward to working with new coalition partners from labor and LGBT organizations.’’

The measure was a repeat of last year’s Prop 73, which Californians also rejected. Both measures were part of a larger effort to ban all abortions.

South Dakota also stood up for choice Tuesday, when it rejected a statewide abortion ban. Oregon voters rejected their own parental notification measure. Together, these three victories for choice send a powerful message to politicians nationwide.

Unfortunately, public safety and civil liberties took two steps backwards with the passage of Prop 83, which will place dangerous, expensive, and unworkable residency restrictions on registered sex offenders. The residency ban – 2,000 feet from a school or park – will prevent offenders from living almost anywhere in large urban areas, forcing them to move to the suburbs or rural areas where there are fewer police resources to monitor them.

Some law enforcement and victims’ rights advocates fear the measure could also force sex offenders underground, where they will have no supervision.

Prop 90 was rightly rejected by voters. The measure would have restricted the government’s authority to regulate the use of private property for the public good.

Prop 89 was also voted down. The ACLU-NC took no position on this initiative. We supported the public-financing provisions of this initiative because they promoted broader political participation. However, other provisions in the measure violated First Amendment rights in ballot-measure campaigns.

To read more about our positions from the 2006 Election, click here.

For more information on some of the implications of Prop 83, click here.