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Published: September 28, 2007

The push is on

Planned Parenthood mounts campaign to pressure Gov. Schwarzenegger into signing bill that would provide millions more in state funding for family planning

Planned Parenthood affiliates across California have geared up their PR machines once again, this time in an effort to persuade Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign a bill that could result in the state spending another $3.2 million a year on “family planning services.”

Planned Parenthood, whose California affiliates typically end each fiscal year with budget surpluses in the millions, want the governor to sign SB-94, sponsored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles. The bill, which would increase Medi-Cal rates for “family planning,” passed the legislature with the support of only one Republican. It was sent to the governor on Sept. 19, who has until Oct. 14 to either sign or veto the measure.

A source inside the Schwarzenegger administration told California Catholic Daily earlier this week that the governor has yet to make up his mind on whether to sign or veto the bill.

Planned Parenthood lost an earlier legislative battle that would have increased Medi-Cal rates across the board at an estimated annual cost of $24 million. Now Planned Parenthood has set its sights on a more modest goal -- getting the governor to sign SB-94.

Planned Parenthood activists have called a “Rally to Urge the Governor to Sign SB 94” on Oct. 2 outside the governor’s San Francisco office. “It’s Time to Act! You Can Help Increase Access to Family Planning,” says an announcement of the rally. “Thanks to the support and mobilization of thousands of Planned Parenthood activists like you throughout the state, the California legislature overwhelmingly passed SB 94, a critical piece of legislation that would increase reimbursement rates for vital family planning services and increase access to time-sensitive care for low-income women throughout the state.”

On the web sites of major Planned Parenthood affiliates across California, a “take action” alert has been posted under the heading “Urge the Governor to Sign SB 94!” The alert includes suggested text for phone message to the governor, and a prepared fax that can be completed and sent from the Planned Parenthood site.

Vince Hall, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, took to the airwaves in San Diego in support of SB-94, telling KPBS Radio, “…there are many women who contact Planned Parenthood seeking to set an appointment to receive services, and they're told that the nearest appointment time is three weeks away, sometimes four weeks away.”

Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland and president pro tem of the state Senate, joined Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California president Kathy Kneer and other supporters of SB-94 at the state Capitol on Sept. 26 in an attempt to put pressure on the governor to sign the bill.

“Of all the bills on the governor's desk, there must be some 700, this has to be in the top five,” Perata said, according to a Sept. 27 report on the left-leaning web site California Progress Report. The web site said Schwarzenegger’s decision on SB-94 was “a no-brainer.”

Planned Parenthood has also turned to its allies on the editorial boards of newspapers across the state in its effort to get SB-94 signed into law. A Sept. 21 editorial in the San Jose Mercury News, for example, cited a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in an editorial entitled “Family planning legislation deserves enactment.”

Do you want to have your opinion heard in Sacramento?
To contact the governor’s office by phone: (916) 445-2841
To send a fax to the governor’s office: (916) 445-4633

© California Catholic Daily 2007. All Rights Reserved.