Letters to the Editor
Thanks, Don
Sebastiani, for
Prop. 85 support
Editor: We would like to express our appreciation to Don Sebastiani for his support of Proposition 85 (parental notification of abortion of girls under 18). It is probably one of the wisest investments he has ever made!
Don and Ligia Booker
Sebastiani can’t
fathom terror of
unwanted pregnancy
Editor: I had to write in response to your revelation that the money of three men helped put an initiative on the ballot in the last two elections, the so-called “parental notification” measure. Included was our own Don Sebastiani.
The initiative process needs to be tightened up when three wealthy men – one from out of state, even – can pay signature-gatherers and, by virtue of their wealth, can get an initiative on the ballot of the state of California.
I’m sure Mr. Sebastiani is a pious man who feels that he is doing the right thing while trying to impose his beliefs on the entire state. Yet, a man in his position of wealth and power cannot fathom what it would be like to be a young teenage girl facing the terror of an unwanted pregnancy. Yes, I said terror.
Pregnancy can be debilitating and disfiguring. Labor and birth can still be life-threatening for the mother even in this day and age. Not to mention excruciatingly painful, bloody and risky. The younger the girl is, the more risk of permanent complications. There are entire hospitals in North Africa called fistula hospitals dedicated to helping young women heal from the damage of giving birth at too young an age, though the damage can be irreversible.
The groups that are pushing parental notification laws have the stated objective of ending all abortions. The method is to chip away as much of this freedom with the ultimate goal of overturning Roe v. Wade.
It’s about taking away this important protection from the most vulnerable first. Teenage girls can’t vote, and my guess is that the great majority of them aren’t even aware that this issue is happening.
Parental notification doesn’t work. Studies have shown that the same amount of abortions occur – only then it’s done dangerously and illegally. In Texas, they have the strictest parental notification law. They also have the highest incidence of young girls dying and injured from back-alley abortions.
The men that financed Prop. 85 and Prop. 73 before that, have stated plainly that they will continue to put this issue on the ballot again and again and again. God willing, the voters will show the same compassion and intelligence that they’ve shown in the last two elections when confronted with this issue and shoot it down again. I just wish it weren’t so easy for a few rich guys to try to come in and bend the state to their will.
Anne Petersen
How to pass hospital parcel tax
Editor: This is an open letter to the Sonoma Valley Health Care District Board of Directors:
Suggestions for passing Measure B.
1. Create a clean slate and ask Bob Kowal, the current hospital chief executive officer, to resign. He has been unresponsive to the public at large and has wasted large sums of public money with nothing to show for it but failure. For example the hospital Architect’s Anshen and Allen have been paid at least $1 million of the district’s money.
2. Ask the former chair of the hospital board, Michael Nugent, to step down since he and the CEO have been too close to have the detachment needed to be effective.
3. Appoint a new strategic planning committee. Many on this committee have contributed to the failure with their elaborate plans.
4. Keep our hospital near where it is now. Build only what is required by the state to meet Senate Bill 1953 seismic safety requirements.
5. Do everything possible to protect the city of Sonoma’s urban growth boundary and explain to the voters in Sonoma that allowing the city limits to go out to Eighth Street East will be sheer folly. Those who want to keep Sonoma’s so-called small-town charm need to understand that sprawl will result if our UGB is broken.
6. Ask Cirrus (the for-profit private hospital corporation) to join the health care district in a joint venture agreement within our existing UGB. Then we might have a win/win solution for our community, our district hospital and for Cirrus.
I make these suggestions with a heavy heart because I want the parcel tax, Measure B, to pass in March. With the closing at the end of the year of what was formerly our county hospital now run by Sutter in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County will be facing a serious shortage of hospital beds and an emergency room. This makes it even more imperative for us to pass a parcel tax so our Sonoma Valley Hospital can continue to keep its door open.
Marilyn Goode
