An assault on abortion rights

PROPOSITION 85 is a deceptive rehash of last year's Proposition 73, the parental-notification act that voters rejected. Under the guise that this is a proposition about child safety and parental rights, its backers are claiming that it's all about keeping parents involved in their children's lives when it comes to making such a decision as difficult as whether or not to have an abortion. Don't be fooled. Proposition 73 was a bad idea, and Proposition 85 is still a bad idea. Though the backers have stripped some of the measure's objectionable language -- a phrase that sought to embed wording into the state Constitution that abortion is the "death of an unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born," which critics rightly argued could be a set-up for litigation to outlaw abortion -- this still amounts to an attempt to undermine the state's privacy rights as affirmed by the state Supreme Court.

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