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Mixed News on California Ballot Initiatives

By Nick Sifuentes - Sep 30th, 2008 at 10:01 am

The paramount prominence and importance of the presidential election can often blind activists to the significance of downballot candidates and initiatives. In California, two such initiatives could potentially roll back the advances on the progressive agenda made over the last few years in this bluest of blue states. Due to the ease of qualifying propositions for the California ballot–even those which would alter the California Constitution–two major social issues propositions are featured on the California General Election ballot this year.

One, Proposition 8, has received far more media attention and fundraising than the other, Proposition 4. Prop 8 is the widely publicized constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in California. The Field Poll–well-regarded in the state–has released several polls, all showing positive movement among voters. The latest such poll shows that a wide margin opposes the amendment: 55% plan to vote no, while only 38% plan to yes vote. Some of that movement may be due to the recent rewording of the amendment by the Attorney General, changing it from “Limit on Marriage” to “Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry.”

Most people seem opposed to the proposition regardless of how it is worded, however, as the same Field Poll sampled both versions of the amendment and found that even with the prior wording, opposition still came in at 52%. Opposition to the amendment at all levels of governance has been high, and there is a long list of endorsements on the “No On 8″ website from religious leaders, unions, nonprofits, and elected officials, all of whom have put their names–and their careers–at stake opposing the ban on same-sex marriage.

The second measure, Proposition 4, is a standard parental notification initiative for minors seeking an abortion. This same measure has been defeated twice–once in 2005 and again in 2006. Yet now the latest Field Poll shows the initiative with a clear lead in California. Such a result is surprising, given that it has been recently voted against by a majority of California voters, but in this instance few voters have any awareness that such a measure is even on the ballot, so eclipsed is the third appearance of this initiative by Proposition 8.

Prop 4 and other such parental notification measures strike me as illogical: in any functional family, a teenage girl would be likely to tell her parents about an unintended pregnancy. It should be our goal to raise children to make smart decisions and to inform parents when they make a mistake rather than devolving to the government the role of good parenting.

As noted in a recent Los Angeles Times editorial opposing the ballot measure, only in those instances where informing a parent would be a risky proposition does this bill come into play, and in those situations it forces a minor to reveal her pregnancy status in a threatening environment, or to seek out alternatives to an abortion performed by medical professionals. Either is dangerous to the health and well-being of teenage girls, and as such it is disheartening to see so many Californians willing to finally ratify the third iteration of this measure. One hopes that as voter awareness increases, so too will opposition to the measure.

Aside from the erosion of the right to choice represented by Proposition 4, a subsidiary worry is the way that this measure keeps reappearing on the ballot. Social conservatives, so conscious of the will of the people when it comes to blasting “activist judges” on the decision in In re Marriage Cases, are typically hypocritical in ignoring the twice-expressed will of the voters when it comes to reproductive freedom. This highlights two things: the spurious nature of the right-wing’s “concern” for voters and the specter of constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage appearing repeatedly on California’s ballots for years to come. If nothing else, the persistence of fundamentalists with cash to burn should emphasize the need for ballot reform in California.

Tags: California, gay marriage, law, LGBT, reproductive rights