PUBLIC E-MAIL BEING DISTRIBUTED AND SHARED BY Knight of Columbus members from the Massachusetts who have asked us to share:

Help is needed to provide pick up locations throughout the state for the petition outlined below to protect babies born alive. If your Council is willing to help and be a pickup location please contact Pat Curley, , with your location and contact information. Any help you could provide with pickup locations and getting petitions signed will be greatly appreciated.

Please consider supporting the effort to change the law passed last year to save children born alive. Please try to collect signatures from Council members and their wives. If any Councils want to be more involved and collect signatures outside of the Council that would be a wonderful thing to do. It’s very important that the instructions below are followed for the signatures to be valid. If you have any questions please contact Pat Curley, 978-884-5292. Thank you.

A LAW TO PROTECT BABIES BORN ALIVE

Summary:

This proposed law would require that, notwithstanding any

other law to the contrary, if a child is born alive, all reasonable steps in keeping with good medical practice shall be taken to preserve the life of a child born alive.

Tell me more:

Under the Roe Act, passed last year by the Massachusetts legislature, a child born alive has no legal right to life-sustaining medical care, regardless of the circumstances of the child’s birth. This proposed law would close that loophole.

When will the proposed law appear on the ballot?

If 85,000 qualified signatures are gathered by mid-November 2021, the initiative petition question will appear on the November 2022 ballot.

Who can sign the petition?

Any person registered to vote in Massachusetts is eligible to sign the petition. Each petition contains the voters of only the town named at its bottom. If you live in a neighborhood in Boston such as Charlestown or Dorchester please mark Boston as the city/town.

Remember, signature gathering time is not a time for debate and argument. If someone disagrees with the proposed law or is uncomfortable with signing, thank them for their time and move on.

INDIVIDUAL CAMPAIGN SIGNATURE COLLECTING

PRINTING A PETITION

First, click here to download the file to your computer.

You may print it, at 100% scale, on any printer with the capability to print two-sided. If your printer doesn’t allow 2-sided printing, you may want to print at Staples or another commercial outlet. Not following these guidelines can cause signatures gathered on that sheet to be disqualified.

Copies must be on white paper, two-sided, and in black ink.

Examine your copy carefully. Any extraneous marks or smudges can cause the entire sheet to be disqualified.

If you are at all uncomfortable with printing your own petition, pre-printed copies will be available beginning next week.

LAUNCHING YOUR EFFORT

At the bottom of each side of the sheet, write the name of the town you are collecting for in the box, make sure to mark the city. Any registered voter of the town named on the bottom of the sheet can sign.

Anytime you need to start a new sheet for a new town, you may.

Signatures must be in blue or black ink and must be legible. Printing, either in lieu of a signature or next to it for clarity, is acceptable. The ward and precinct columns can be left blank.

Remember to keep sheets clean. Marginal notes or scribbles, highlighting and underlining, food stains, and any other stray marks can disqualify a sheet.

Sheets need not be full; after a few days of collecting, you should turn yours in to the Town Clerk’s office in the town written on the bottom and start fresh. Make sure the Clerk time and date stamps the sheet. The Clerk’s Office will give you a receipt. Take a picture of the receipt with your phone and email it to patrick_curley@verizon.net.

If you are unable to turn in a sheet to the proper Clerk’s office, place it in a stamped envelope and mail to:

Bernadette Lyons

Chairwoman, Massachusetts Newborn Protection Coalition

12 Highvale Lane

Andover, MA 01810

Michael Lesperance

State Deputy

Massachusetts State Council

Knights of Columbus

Join Today Visit KofC.org/JoinUs

MCGIVNEY2020

Live Generously