Paula Talley is a friend ...you go girl!
For Immediate Release
Only 120 Volunteers Needed
to Stop Forced
Abortions
Circulation of
Missouri Petition Initiative Has Begun
St. Louis, MO (March 19, 2008) - Organizers of a Missouri
petition initiative that would reduce the risk of women being pressured into
unwanted and unsafe abortions have begun the process of gathering the 85,000
signatures needed to put the measure before voters in November.
According to Janice Lewis, an organizer of the petition drive
for the Stop Forced Abortions Alliance, the group is seeking 120 individuals or
church groups to circulate the petition. "On average, we need only about 1,000
signatures per county," said Lewis. "We need only about 120 people to coordinate
small groups of friends or church groups to gather the signatures. All the
instructions and paperwork people need are on our website, www.StopForcedAbortions.org."
If passed, the initiative petition would make it easier for
women to sue abortion providers for negligence if they fail to screen for
coercion or other risk factors which put women at higher risk of psychological
or emotional complications after an abortion.
"This measure will put an end to negligent,
one-size-fits-all, assembly-line abortion counseling," says Paula Talley,
another organizer of the group. "If this law had been in place in 1980, I would
have been spared the years of grief and depression which followed my own
unwanted abortion."
The group's goal of improving screening standards, Talley
says, has indirectly received an endorsement from an unexpected source,
Britain's Royal College of Psychiatrists. On March 14th, the Royal College
issued a statement recognizing studies linking abortion to mental health
problems and recommending the screening of women prior to an abortion for risk
factors associated with a higher risk of mental health problems.
The
Royal College's report followed the highly publicized suicide of artist Emma
Beck following the abortion of her twins. Beck's suicide note stated: "Living is
hell for me. I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a
good mum. I want to be with my babies; they need me, no one else does."
"Tragedies like the death of Emma Beck can be avoided by
proper pre-abortion screening," says Lewis. "Our volunteers can help protect
women from the negligence which leads to thousands of unwanted, unsafe, and
unnecessary abortions every year in Missouri."
Talley agrees. "This is a
very pro-woman law. The only people who can oppose this common sense measure are
those who care less about women than they do about the profits of the abortion
industry."
Planned Parenthood attorneys have filed suit in Cole County
challenging the ballot summary issued by Secretary of State Carnahan in relation
to the Stop Forced Abortions Alliance's initiative.
###
Regarding Royal College of Psychiatrists' Statement and
Emma Beck: see " Royal college warns
abortions can lead to mental illness" TimesOnline.co.uk accessed March 18,
2008
A copy of the new
initiative language is available for viewing at www.stopforcedabortions.org