To proponents of Proposition 4, Sarah's story is an emotionally powerful argument for requiring doctors to notify a parent or guardian before performing an abortion on a girl younger than 18.

Their ballot argument for the November parental notification initiative says, "Sarah was only 15 when she had a secret abortion." It tells of her death from a "deadly infection," asserting: "Had someone in her family known about the abortion, Sarah's life could have been saved."

On Friday, a Sacramento judge ruled that Sarah's story may remain on official ballot guides to be mailed to 13 million California voters – even though there is no "Sarah."

The name is a pseudonym for a Texas girl who died of blood poisoning in 1994 due to complications from an abortion. Proposition 4 opponents argued that Sarah's story should be stricken from the ballot pamphlet because the initiative provisions wouldn't have applied to the girl's circumstances.

But Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny ruled that the searing narrative parental notification supporters hope will convince voters to pass Proposition 4 can stay on the ballot.

His written ruling came after he told lawyers in a Friday morning hearing: "The courts have recognized that in ballot arguments, proponents are allowed to engage in hyperbole."

After California voters rejected similar parental notification initiatives in 2005 and 2006, proponents began raising money for Proposition 4 under a "Friends of Sarah" campaign committee.

Attorney Beth Porter said in court Friday that "Sarah" was 15-year-old Jammie Garcia Yanez-Villegas. She said the girl was considered a married woman under Texas "common law" statues because she was living with her fiancé at the time of her abortion.

Porter, representing initiative opponents including Planned Parenthood, said the girl would not have been considered an "unemancipated minor" in California as Proposition 4 requires.

Assailing "the myth of Sarah," she challenged ballot suggestions that a parental notification law could have prevented the girl's death. "It's absolutely false to say if someone had known about it, her life would be saved," Porter said.

But Catherine Short, the attorney for Proposition 4 supporters, argued that Sarah was simply "Jammie Garcia," a teenager who did not represent herself as married. She noted that California has no "common law" marriage, and so the teen would have been protected under the law if she lived in the state.

Short said the proponents' ballot statement properly argues that Proposition 4 could have enhanced the girl's chances of survival. The measure would require doctors to give a 48-hour notice to a parent or guardian before performing abortions on minors.

"Had someone in her family known, Sarah's life could have been saved," Short said. She argued that had a parent been informed of the abortion, "they would have sought medical attention sooner" once complications developed.

Parker called Short's argument "sheer speculation." But Kenny ruled there was no legal basis for banning it from the ballot statement.

Though he wrote in his ruling he was "troubled by the Proposition 4 proponents' artful characterization" of Sarah's story, he declared "there is no convincing evidence" it misleads voters into thinking the initiative could have saved the the Texas girl.

Call Peter Hecht, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5539.