Call To Action
California
For Catholics, public virtue is as important as private virtue in building up the common good. In the Catholic tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue; participation in the political process is a moral obligation. --Faithful Citizenship, USCCB
Amended Bill Still Bad - Continue to Oppose AB 2747
The National Right to Life Committee and the California ProLife Council have NOT dropped opposition to AB2747.
From CA Pro-life Council:
The Bouvia Decision (1986) is a little known, but important California appellate ruling (won by the ACLU) that legitimizes (in California only) physician co-operation and involvement in the dehydration death of even non-terminal patients.
The known goal of the Patty Berg bill, AB 2747, has been to proselytize medically vulnerable patients with this information, thus promoting the idea of "assisted suicide" among those who may not otherwise think this way.
AB 2747 has been recognized by many as a truly bad bill; both because it mandates what medical professionals actually say to patients and when they say it (at their most vulnerable time), and because it bodes ill for these medically and emotionally vulnerable patients. (Unless, like Assemblywoman Burg and the rest of the pro-euthanasia movement, you agree that the real practical answer for seemingly, 'hopeless' patients is to be dead, and that as soon as possible.)
On June 26th, 'bell and whistle amendments' were made to the bill but they in no way changed the substantive effect outlined above. Unfortunately, these 'attention getting amendments' distracted some and convinced them to then drop opposition to the bill. An important swing vote on the committee was thus falsely convinced it rendered the bill harmless. With that slim one vote, it passed out of the committee. It now goes to the Senate floor.
The National Right to Life Committee and the California ProLife Council have NOT dropped opposition to AB2747. We urge all those concerned about the very real risks posed to the medically and emotionally vulnerable to continue opposing this bill, and to urge their State Senators and Assembly Members to also oppose it.
AB 2747 UPDATE - Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide Bill
Hearing scheduled Wednesday, June 25th
AB 2747 (Berg) has been double-referred to both Senate Health and Judiciary Committees. The hearing of the bill in the Senate Health Committee will be next Wednesday, June 25th at the Capitol in room 4203 at 1:30 p.m.
Please contact committee members from both committees. You can direct your letters of opposition to the legislators from the fax numbers listed below.
916.324.0384 – Senate Health Committee
916.324.4283 – Sen. Sheila Kuehl (Chair) – West Los Angeles, Santa Monica
916.445.7750 – Sen. Sam Aanestad (Vice Chair) – Redding, Shasta, Tehama, Chico
916.324.0283 – Sen. Elaine Alquist – San Jose
916.327.8817 – Sen. Gil Cedillo – Los Angeles
916.324.2680 – Sen. Dave Cox – Sacramento, Placer, Amador
916.445.8081 – Sen. Abel Maldonado – Central Coast
916.445.0128 – Sen. Gloria Negrete-McCleod – San Bernardino
916.445.8899 – Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas – Los Angeles
916.446.7382 – Sen. Mark Wyland – North San Diego
916.327.2186 – Sen. Leland Yee PhD – San Francisco
916.445.8390 - Senate Judiciary Committee
916.327.2483 – Sen. Ellen Corbett (Chair) – San Leandro, Fremont, Newark, Hayward
916.445.9263 – Sen. Tom Harman (Vice-Chair) – Huntington Beach, Orange County
916.445.9754 – Sen. Dick Ackerman – Tustin, Orange County
916.324.4283 – Sen. Sheila Kuehl – West Los Angeles, Santa Monica
916.323.2263 – Sen. Darrell Steinberg – Sacramento
Euthanasia Information
OPPOSE AB 2747 - END-OF-LIFE CARE
AB 2747, End-of-life care, by Assembly Members Berg and Levine will be taken up for a floor vote in the Assembly on Monday, May 5, 2008.
LEGISLATIVE ALERT!!! May 4, 2008
Dear Friend of Life,
We need your help to stop AB 2747.
Undaunted by their earlier failure to advance a huge sweeping euthanasia law, Assemblymembers Patty Berg (D-Eureka) and Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) are now attempting to take smaller step down the slippery euthanasia slope and we need your help to stop them. Last Tuesday, on a straight party line vote Assembly Bill B 2747 was voted out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee and onto the Assembly floor. We expect AB 2747 to be taken up by the full Assembly this week. So we don’t have much time to act if we are to stop it there.
On the surface, AB 2747 seems like a simple bill benefiting the hospice care industry. However, it contains a sneaky loophole that will permit doctors and health care providers to transform the rarely used practice of “palliative sedation” into a vehicle permitting assisted suicide. Palliative sedation is the sedation of a suffering and imminently dying patient to the point of unconsciousness. This bill changes the standards surrounding its use.
This is way around current law. So PLEASE call, write or fax your Assemblyman and Senator today and urge them to vote NO on AB 2747.
Assembly Capitol phone numbers are (916) 319-20
District Number and Assembly office fax numbers are (916) 319-21 District Number.
For example newly elected Speaker of the Assembly, Karen Bass is from the 47th Assembly District.
Her phone number is (916) 319-2047 and her fax number is (916) 319-2147.
Schwarzenegger tells homosexual Republican group he will fight effort to ban same-sex marriages in California
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced last week that he would oppose a ballot measure reaffirming California's ban on same-sex marriage.
Gov. Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed same-sex marriage bills, stating the courts or the people should decide the issue. A decision by the California Supreme Court is expected by June 5.
Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading West Coast pro-family organization, commented, "Arnold Schwarzenegger is saying one thing and doing another. When he first ran for governor, he said he believed marriage was only for a man and a woman. He promised to veto every bill legalizing same-sex marriage. He even said marriage is up to the courts or the voters to decide. Now he's flip- flopped and betrayed average voters by pledging to 'fight against' protecting marriage licenses for a man and a woman in the California State Constitution. He's showing everyone that he is integrity-challenged."
Thomasson added: "Marriage is a beautiful and exclusive relationship between one man and one woman. If you don't have a man and a woman, you don't have marriage. In his hypocrisy on this vitally important issue, Governor Schwarzenegger has pandered to homosexual activists and abandoned the majority of Californians, who strongly support man-woman marriage. Finally, as a self-proclaimed Catholic, how does Arnold explain his big disagreement with Jesus on the sanctity of marriage?" LifeSite
Contact Governor Schwarznegger and ask him to honor is campaign promises to protect marriage.
Governor's Office:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160 ( new number )
Sarah's Law - "Family Notification" Ballot Initiative
Two weeks left to gather signatures: Your help needed!
Currently in California a minor may obtain an abortion without her parents knowledge or consent. Sarah's law would require a doctor to notify a parent or adult family member over 21 before she may obtain an abortion.
Signatures are being collected throughout the state to put this initiative on the November ballot.
We need your help.
Go to the FriendsofSarah.com website and request a petition. Collect signatures from your friends and family and from parents at your childrens school.
Background: Who is Sarah? *
“Sarah” was a 15 year old girl who became pregnant. Without her parent’s consent or notice, Sarah visited a clinic and the abortionist performed an abortion on Sarah, unknowingly tearing the right side of her cervix. Unaware of this complication, Sarah suffered blood poisoning, fever, chills, abdominal pain and nausea for four days before finally being admitted to the hospital. When hospital personnel discovered the tear and post-abortion infection, they placed Sarah in the Intensive Care Unit, but the infection was too far advanced and Sarah died. Hospital physicians reported that had Sarah received prompt medical care, she would still be alive today.
Sarah’s parents did not know that she was pregnant. Sarah’s parents didn’t know that Sarah had an abortion. Her parents could have saved her….if they had known.
Help us protect our daughters.
Help Put Marriage Amendment on November Ballot
On January 31, the Attorney General announced that VoteYesMarriage.com has 150 days to qualify The Voters' Right to Protect Marriage Initiative for the California ballot.
Why is a Marriage Amendment Necessary?
The California Marriage Amendment is Vitally Necessary
to Protect the People's Vote on Marriage
In 2000, Californians gave overwhelming support (61.4%) to Proposition 22, the Protection of Marriage Initiative (a statute, a regular law on the books, which was not an amendment to the California State Constitution). The people's will to keep marriage between one man and one woman was unmistakable. Proposition 22, which became Family Code, Section 308.5 clearly stated that "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."But judges and politicians have ignored and blatantly assaulted the people's vote. Reasoning that they could easily ignore Proposition 22, these judges and politicians made themselves superior to the voters, the very opposite of Abraham Lincoln's cherished vision of "government of the people, by the people, and for the people," by undermining marriage at every opportunity. That's wrong. (Further understand why Prop. 22 didn't protect marriage rights. PDF)
For More Information: VoteYesMarriage.com