Oh - My - God

Sunday at the Ramkota in Sioux Falls are two events going on at the same time.

The Alpha Center Anti Abortion Rally AND The Abate Motorcycle Swap Meet.
Same Place - Same Time

While the Abate folks are diverse and generally a pretty congenial crowd, the swap meet attracts a very eclectic crowd from all over that is somewhat at odds with the ultra conservative world view of many in the "pro-life" movement. Hung over bikers and wound up activists. Hmmm.

You bring the lawn chairs, we'll bring the popcorn.

Contraceptives Poll

Would you support free long term contraceptives to anyone who can not afford them if it eliminated all or almost all abortions?
	Yes
	No
Free polls from Pollhost.com

South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families Meeting

The first short meeting will be held in Sioux Falls on Sunday, April 2nd at 2pm at the Morrison Commons on the campus of Augustana College. Information on how you can volunteer, help or collect petition signatures will be the main topic.

Our Guest Speaker For The Right, Lydia Underwood

Due to some complaints that we are not offering up enough opportunities for the right to speak here, we have brought on board Mrs. Lydia Underwood to be our weekly guest commentator for the right. The comments of Mrs. Underwood are completely her own and do not imply any agreement or endorsement by our blog of her views in any way shape or form. Don't blame us, were only being fair and balanced.



Why Abortion Should Be Banned

By Lydia Underwood

I don't know why these anti-family lie-bural lesbians have such an issue with abortion. Frankly, we need more babies here in God's country. Where are all the future Wal-mart workers going to come from? Without cheap labor who will wait on me at Cracker Barrel on Sunday morning after church, or at the Royal Fork on Fridays? Abortion removes 800 potential sources of cheap labor right here in South Dakota every year. Abortion is the very reason illegal aliens are taking over our beautiful country, we should be supplying our own exploitable labor force right here using God fearing believers! Who's going to fight our wars against the evil muslims for us? We certainly can't export THAT to India, none of those darn muslims would understand some funny talkin guy from India when he told them to surrender. Those non-believers can't win a war anyway, that is the domain of God's chosen warriors.

Abortion on demand is against God. Killing the unborn is God's job! It is true that the Bible contains no verses prohibiting voluntary abortion. That, in and of itself, shows that it is a sin. For all of time he has found so many ways to snuff the life out of people, unborn included. Who are we to try to do his work?
Why should we concern ourselves with abortion when God gives us better examples. Wasn’t it God who said, “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones” (Psalms 137:9)? According to Deuteronomy, if a child is unruly and disobedient, we not only have the option of killing him, but it is mandatory that he be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).

So what should we do with all these spawns of the unbelievers? Why they should be mandatorily taken from their heathen mothers and given to good Christian homes of course. Then they can be raised properly, home schooled and become true believers! Such as system just makes sense. The indigent are wrested of their babies for free where a good Christian adoption service can place them with a true Christian family for a handsome profit. When people will pay $30,000 for a baby and all you have to do is forge a few papers that's a h - e double hockey sticks of a profit for God's work!

Well I have to go, Ezechiel keeps beating the cat with my "His Essence" candle instead of doing his home schooling lessons and Elijah is pouring bleach into the back of the TV. Til next week, praise Jesus!

Petition To Stop Wasting State Money On Personal Trips

Slightly off topic but this is good to know:

There is an effort to make it so whomever is in the Governor will not use the state plane for their own pleasure trips or for personal campaigning. Gov. Rounds has been exposed by the Argus Leader and many other sources for his extensive and expensive abuse of the state plane made available to the Governors office. The measure would assure that future Governors would not waste taxpayer money on their personal trips. In the last year under Gov. Rounds the plane expenses have almost doubled with much of it being personal use. The additional costs were around $300,000 in 2004.

Below is a note from the group running the petition to get this on the ballot:

the effort to limit the governor's abuse of taxpayer resources for personal and political flights is moving into the next phase.

the deadline for signatures is May 2nd, so he needs folks who have gathered signatures to send in completed or partially-completed petitions. if people wish to continue gathering signatures, it is requested that they download another petition from the petition drive website, at
http://www.ourairplane.org/

completed or partially-completed petitions should be sent to:
South Dakota Taxpayers for Accountability
Box 160
2522 West 41st St.
Sioux Falls, SD, 57105-6120

Rapid City Planned Parenthood Meeting Tonight

Per Robbinsdale Radical

Planned Parenthood is meeting at the Rapid City Library tomorrow night 6-8 to rally to the 1215 referral cause. This is a Wednesday post, meaning the meeting is TONIGHT (Thursday).

Sorry for the late notice.

Right Extremist Running As A Dem?

Clean Cut Kid broke this story.

Duane Spader is running as a Democrat in District 9 (north area around Sioux Falls).
He's running against Larry Deidrich.
The word on the street is that a fringe group of Democrats in Sioux Falls led by Patrick Kirschman recruited Mr. Spader to run as a Democrat to take out Republican Senator Tom Dempster -- who evidently isn't radical enough for them -- against the will of the Minnehaha County Democratic Party because they have another candidate with petitions out.

It seems that Mr. Spader has some rather close ties to the extreme right fringe who find Larry Deidrich not radical enough for their tastes. Deidrich was one of the Republicans who did not vote for their abortion ban.

We agree with Clean Cut Kid on this "Mr. Spader should be ashamed for agreeing to participate in such a scheme and just ran against Dempster in a Republican primary."

Please be aware of this and make sure people you know that are in the northern portions of Sioux Falls are aware of this also.

How Many Abortions Could $1 Million Prevent?

The one million dollar legal donation offered up by Steve Kirby as enticement to pass the abortion ban could be put to better use preventing abortion if that was the real desire of the religious anti choice movement.

One million dollars could buy 2000 units (plus medical fees) of one of the long term implantible contraception devices such as Implanon or ones such as Norplant. What if those funds were used to provide these devices on a voluntary basis to women in the highest risk groups as identified in abortion statistics? Potentially 2000 abortions would not take place in SD since both have a 99.5 or better success rate.

If the price was lowered even more abortions could be prevented. In the UK Norplant was retailing for $25 from the pharmaceutical company while it was about $400 in the US. If such a device was available here for $25, one million dollars could prevent 40,000 abortions.
Fifty Years worth of abortions potentially prevented.

We Hurt Sibby's Manhood

It seems we have bruised Sibby's manhood. In an earlier post we stated next week is "Real Man Week", proclaiming that the decent guys in the state that treat women with respect in all aspect of their lives should be thanked.

Sibby seems to have found that to be an affront to his manhood and has proclaimed that any man who is respectful of the women in their lives are just after cheap sex, murderers and anti-family.
Anyone who disagrees with Sibby is anti-family, evil and "against god".

For any of you who are not familiar with Sibby, among his other claims to fame such as outing Jesus General as a subversive left wing site to secretly convert the faithful out of their neoconservative bliss also testified before the Legislature. He testifed as part of Roger Hunt's bill to demanded that "abstinence til marriage as the only socially acceptable norm" be taught in the public schools.

We have to wonder if he gets some of his news tips from The Onion.

South Dakota Grandmothers Speak

This group's blog outlines some very telling questions that deserve an answer.
The group is coming out against the task force report calling it biased and medically inaccurate.
Their rebuttal also includes a list of 15 questions that the anti choice proponents in SD should be required to answer in detail.

Task Force Report - Serious Flaws And Questions

There has been a large volume of outcry about the task force report, evidence is purposely omitted by qualified professionals that testified, members of the committee that were shut out of the process etc.

Lawyer Lynn Paltrow testified before the task force and provided some very compelling evidence that was completely ignored by the task force. Ms. Paltrow cited a number of legal cases and verifiable factual evidence from sources such as the AMA. Her entire testimony is presented here.
It gives a rather disturbing tale of the loss of rights for pregnant women in the name of fetal rights.

You can read the task force report yourself here.

Napoli Blames Native Americans

Will Bill Napoli ever learn to just stop talking?
In yet another statement he has made, now he is blaming
Native Americans for the high infant mortaility rate in SD.

In a state with one of the highest infant mortality rates (babies dying) why is there no outrage from the pro life people? Shouldn't they be concerned about those lives too, no matter what portion of South Dakota they may or may not be occuring in?

The other concerning portion of Bill's latest statements was when the reporter suggested he look something up on Google he had no clue what Google was. Anyone THAT out of touch with the world around him should not be making laws.

Men And The Abortion Issue

Bob Burnet makes an interesting case about mens involvement in the abortion issue and how many miss the larger religious war behind it.

The article has an email it to a friend link. Maybe email it to a guy you know.
Don't get us wrong though, we have seen quite a few men stepping into the public conversation on this issue. Many men "get it" and see that this issue effects them too and the larger issues of the religious extremists who also want to control everything having to do with sex and relationships. The number of men becoming involved in fighting this in SD is becoming considerable. Every time there is some sort of public event speaking out against the religious right, more men are there each time.

BTW, We are declaring next week "Real Man Week". There are many really great men in South Dakota that treat women as equals, support their endeavors, take active roles in relationship decisions and stand up to men who try to oppress and harass women. Real men are confident enough in themselves to not feel threatened by women and don't need to oppress someone else to make themselves feel "manly".
So next week, do something nice for the real men in your life. Do something nice for the guy that always treats you as an equal. Or the guy who told the chauvenistic jerk to knock it off. Whatever the great thing they did that sets them apart from the lowest denominator of questionable men in SD, let them know you appreciate them.

JAIL Amendment And Misogyny

SD War College has a very informative post about the key people behind the JAIL amendment, amendment E (aka: the "E"xcrement amendment).

Besides the obvious "lets burn down the govt." nonsense about dismantling the legal system and the IRS, Bill Stegmeier has quite alot to say about women:

"Further more, she is obviously in her late 40's and maybe early 50's and goes by "Ms." Just what in the hell is that all about? (Now you lesbians out there, please don't turn me in for hate crimes. I'm just like you. There is no way in hell that I'm going to sleep with a man either)"

"No, I think instead of education she just needs a good spanking. But then, being the "Ms." that she is, and I shudder to contemplate what "that" entails (no pun intended) she would probably enjoy it." (link)

"Bill says: At last! My vindication from the pulpit for not getting the "State's" approval for making my VOW to my WIFE Kim and GOD concerning my marriage to my WIFE Kim, mother of OUR three gifts from GOD, Nick 9,Riley 4, and Reagan 2. My VOW is permanent. That is until GOD decides that death due us part. Amen. My VOW is now in cyberspace. So, Kim and me have THAT going for us!Bill continues: In the matter of the union of a man and a woman, may the state, in any and all forms, both locally and federal, stick it up their collective anus. Signed, Bill Stegmeier, so help me God."

"Pastor Matt Trewhella speaks:
5 Reasons Why Christians Should Not Obtain a State Marriage License
"Under these laws, you can divorce for any reason. Often, the courts side with the spouse who is in rebellion to God, and castigates the spouse who remains faithful by ordering him or her not to speak about the Bible or other matters of faith when present with the children."
(link)

This is the mentality of the people pushing the JAIL amendment (amendment E).

The SF School Board Grew A Pair

Board OKs sex ed guidelines From the Argus.
The Sioux Falls School Board has adjusted some of the curiculum for middle school sex ed, including splitting up male and female students for those portions of health class.

What was more interesting than the annoucement of adjustments to the actual materials was the focus on "until marriage" abstinence as the biggest issue in the debate. The boards final decision includes abstinence as "the practice of choosing not to be sexually active". This will be taught along with information on disease control and contraception. But those who complained about the curiculum in the first place demanded that some version that included "until marriage" and stated that society expects "abstinence until marriage". They wanted that included and this morality based phrase seemed to be their main motivation.

An interesting side note is that the school board requested that two police officers be posted at the meeting to keep the peace. This is becoming a rather common trend anywhere the morality crusaders show up. There has been a police presence at a number of public events recently to assure the moral crusaders don't cross over the line into violence.

The most notible of the school board debate of supposed "average concerned parents" is that the names prominent in the meetings also happen to be people deeply involved in the recent morality crusade. These people pushing the school board also have ties to Roger Hunt, Abstinence Clearinghouse and many of them testified before the legislature trying to get the "abstinence til marriage is the social demand" meme made state law.

If you look through the various stories documenting the ongoing school board debate the names that come up as the ones making the stink, also show up in these other places showing their involvement with the moral crusaders.
Argus Article 1
Argus Article 2
Argus Article 3

Names commonly seen in the School Board Issue such as Penny Martens, Cathy Clapper & Jeff Clapper come up in other sources showing their true colors.

Cathy Clapper works for Abstinence Clearinghouse
Jeff Clapper & Penny Martens were part of the group along with Roger (abortion ban) Hunt and everyone's favorite right winger Steve Sibson who testified before the legislature trying to get the "abstinence til marriage" law pushed through the legislature.

So how much public time and money have these people wasted? How many hours has the school district and school board spent working with these people because they wanted their religious philosophy taught in the school? How many city police officer hours have been spent assuring they behaved themselves at various public meetings and events?

What The Abortion Ban Could Cost South Dakota

Clean Cut Kid mentioned earlier this week that the Argus has failed to run anything discussing what the abortion ban could cost South Dakota. Getting a detailed set of numbers isn't easy but here's a starting point to give people an idea what this ban will mean to taxpayers.

Potentially $152 million per year in additional state welfare related costs to raise the new lot of children to age 18. Based on the estimated 800 abortions per year. If all of these children were born into low income homes or given up as wards of the state, each year the state would absorb the bulk of the burden of raising these kids until they are 18. Of course some may be adopted out, others may only be in the system a short time as the parent or parents claw their way out of poverty. More still will most likely be added to the unwanted pregnancy ranks as extremists in the state have been working hard to restrict and ban access to contraception and pushing the removal of sex ed from the schools. If these two factors continue to be part of the equation the 800 number will likely stand or even increase. The estimated cost to raise a child to age 18 is $190,528.

The supreme court fight is a bit harder to put an exact number on. The idea of a million seems very conservative when you look at the legal costs for other smaller lawsuits in general that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and those are not supreme court fights. The loose estimate is about a 3 year legal fight. There will obviously be multiple lawyers and their staff working on this and a number of state officials. Keep in mind that lawyer fees range anywhere from $50 to $1000 per hour. One would assume that lawyers working on a huge supreme court case are going to be asking for an hourly rate on the high end of the scale.
Just one lawyer working 40 hours a week for three years would cost $3,120,000.00.
This would not include travel, espenses or other costs. The cost would clearly be far more than one lawyer's full time fees. But remember, the state of SD is claiming they have a one million dollar secret donation coming. Even if they ever got it, that would not even pay 1/3 of one lawyers full time dedication.

What about other potential lawsuits?
Could people sue the state? Possibly, if they can find a responsible entity to sue or bring suit on a civil rights issue.
Potential additional legal suits:
Class actions due to limits on contraception
Individual suits on forced pregnancies from rape/incest
Individual suits on lost fertility or other physical damage
Additional suits on the constitutionality of the ban

There is the potential for tons of ongoing legal challenges, even if the supreme court upheld the law. People have been making legal challenges to Roe v. Wade for decades. One would assume there would be legal challenges to the abortion ban for decades also. How that would effect SD taxpayers would depend on if SD is directly named in the suit and how it runs through the court system. Even if it was a federal courts issue on constitutionality one would assume the state would be involved in the defence in some way. Were sure the legal experts can shed some more light on this but it shows the potential for some expensive ongoing mess.

One should also take note of the potential for legal challenges on any other legislation that can be construed as based on religion. Items such as the "abstinence til marriage" laws that were attempted and pushes to have that made the rule in school districts opens up civil right suits on the grounds of religious and sexual orientation discrimination.

Based on the knowns and the reasonably assumed the cost of all of this? Lots.

Constructionist Supreme Court To Revisit Women's Suffrage

WASHINGTON, DC—The Supreme Court, demonstrating its new constructionist leaning since the appointment of Justice Samuel Alito, will re-examine arguments behind the 19th Amendment this week. "There was no constitutional precedent for amending the law of the land so dramatically," the Heritage Foundation's Trent England said Monday. "A case could be made on social grounds, but what the Court will determine is exactly what the framers of the Constitution wanted." While it's difficult to predict an outcome, observers believe Ruth Bader Ginsburg will use her three-fifths of a vote to oppose.

Courtesy of the Onion

Why The Ban With No Exceptions Is So Concerning

The 53-year-old man was accused of abusing the girl multiple times per week from the time she was 6 to 13 years old.

But under our new abortion ban had she ended up pregnant, she would have been forced to bear this guys child at age 13 on top of everything else.

Are You Really "Pro Life"

Things to ask someone who is pro life:

would you be for a vaccine that could prevent almost 100% of a type of cancer?

Would you approve of medical technologies that prevent the need for almost all abortions?

Do you think people should have access to contraception medication and devices?

Do you think people should have access to factual information about sex and contraception?

Do you think that laws should not restrict people's freedom to practice their religion?


If they answered yes to any of the above questions they are violating the ideas of the pro life movement.

Bizzare Evangelical Rally In San Francisco

The city of San Francisco Board of Supervisors officially condemned the rally as an act of provocation against gays, people who support choice and a negative influence on one of the nations most tolerant and progressive cities.
Promoters of the near $200 a seat rally claimed society is acting as "terrorists of virtue" and claims such as homosexuality being a sign of the "end of times".

SF Gate Article

Republicans Abandoning The Party, More Challenges to Repub. Seats

Scuttlebutt on the street is that there are more and more Republican defections going on, not only in the voting ranks but people switching parties and now running as Dems to oppose those who voted for all these morality laws this last year. Could HB1215 be the swan song of the SD Republican party?

News on the street is that Scott Heidepriem and Rebecca Kradig have both left the Republican party and are running as Dems in District 13 & 11.

Abortion Lessons For South Dakota

Latin America is a good place to look for the reality of outlawing abortion and restricting contraception access. Its not a pretty picture. Jer Bear is on a roll today, he posted on his blog about this very subject and a recent LA Times Article about the reality of outlawed abortion.

You can find a factual report about abortion and contraception in Latin America at the Guttmacher Institute.

Jer Bear Gives The Anti-Choice Crusade A Smackdown

Jer Bear at Don't Worry About The Govt. gives a big smackdown to the anti choice crusaders.
Without any other decent reason to claim that the abortion ban should go to a vote of the people the anti choice crusaders are now trying to claim that its "unamerican" to let the people vote.

The post is a bit long but a very good well stated explanation of why the anti choice stance is falling apart at the seams.

What The Legislature Should Have Been Doing

The Argus has run a couple of recent articles about the wind energy potential in SD. While our legislature spent the bulk of this last session obcessing over bills to restrict contraception, sex ed and abortion they did little or nothing to address one of the biggest issues in the state.

South Dakota has one of the largest wind energy potentials in the US and it is largely going untapped. We have the potential to make SD a very wealthy state while also doing something great to secure the US stability and improve the environment with wind, ethanol and biodiesel. Yet this year or legislature chose to do nothing about this and instead chose to waste an entire session on morality issues.

Would you like to know who didn't do their job this last session? Go Here for a list of who wasted state time voting for the abortion ban. You can also find out who is in your district and how they voted. Make sure to vote for someone who will actually do the needed work of the state come November.

Is There Anybody Listening?

In blog jumping this morning we noticed that the very bizzare, yet sometimes amusing blogs of some of the extreme South Dakota Taliban didn't have any comments. Most of the blogs about South Dakota have some pretty active commentary going on. So why are the moral crusaders blogs so absent of comments? Well except one where we noted the only comments were some other bloggers poking fun at them.

BTW: We are now officially being stalked by Bob Ellis, he can't stop emailing us. Doesn't SD have an anti-stalking law on the books?

The Religious Right Has A Gambling Addiction

What does this have to do with the abortion ban? The movers and shakers that are promoting the abortion ban and other "morality" legislation seem to have an addiction to gambling and Jack Abermoff. Included are Focus On The Family's James Dobson, Christian Coalition Ralph Reed and Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. You might want to ask your friendly neighborhood theocrat about this next time they start trying to tell you how to live.

Political Backlash

South Dakota Straight Talk posted a great article about the change in the political landscape in SD due to HB1215 and the other attempts at Taliban style law this last legislative session. Here's some highlights.
There is a groundswell that is coming without too much organization.Reports are of Dem organizational meetings with unusually large numbers in attendance and names of candidates. Beyond the old regulars we are seeing just citizens who are mad, unhappy, outraged or whatever who are getting involved. Increased participation has come from the backlash to HB1215 not anything the party organization has done.

While I do not speak for the others who blog here, I am going down to change my party affiliation this week. I have been a life long independent and I will be changing my party affiliation to democrat. While I have voted across party lines since I was old enough to vote, the republican party has allowed themselves to be over-run with religious extremists and we have all seen the result. While I know there are still a few old school republicans they need a wake up call to clean house in their ranks and get rid of the religious theocrats and get back to real issues that effect our state. I also see the only way to get the wack jobs that have caused all this trouble out of office for good is to organize. The best place to do that is with the dems. They have a firm committment to stick to politics and government, not some mis-placed pseudo religious agenda. I challenge everyone who reads the blog to do the same and to not vote for a republican candidate what so ever in the upcoming elections.

Abortion Steadily Down Over The Years

In Today's Argus, there was a rather spineless article about the details of the upcoming abortion debate. But what was more interesting than the article was the chart on the side bar. It showed that since 1973 abortion has steadily gone down in SD. Hmm. what does that mean if abortion has been on the decline year after year? What has changed since 1973? Let's see. Schools adopted more and more medically accurate sex ed. Contraception options increased with more and more options for people to choose from. Contraception became easier to access as it became more commonplace. So let's see, as education and contraception became more available, abortion went down. Cause and effect.

So now why is it the anti-choice crowd want to also ban contraception and sex ed when they are clearly decreasing the abortion rate?

Planned Parenthood New Site About The SD Ban

Planned Parenthood has launched a SD specific section on their SaveRoe.com site.
South Dakota Save Roe.
There is plenty of information and how you can take action.

We have been getting emails from all over the US with people showing their support for the fight against thecratic take-over and the anti-choice ban in SD. Its great to see all the out of state concern and support.

U.Vox at USD Becoming Active In The Rights Movement

U.Vox Voices For Choice at USD is becoming active in the fight to assure the heavy handed abortion ban is overturned.

If you know of or are part of a choice group at one of the colleges or universities in the state please contact us so we can make your group known.

We Finally Hit FARK

The SD abortion debate finally hit FARK. A story of the RCJ article about possibly having an abortion/women's health clinic on the reservations hit FARK's main page. You can read what people think about our state and the abortion ban for yourselves right here.

It Was Only A Matter Of Time

It seems we have become the focus of angst by one Bob Ellis.
Bob who fancies himself a web designer and board member of a creationist group trying to ban evolutionary science from the public schools. Don't quit your day job if that's your idea of web design. Bob can also be seen trying to explain at the RCJ why his kind of hate & intolerance is better than Fred Phelps. I guess he fancies himself a Phelps Lite. All the hate, half the calories.

Bob also belongs to the Alliance for Separation of State and Schools. A group trying to dismantle the Public Schools system. Though we can't figure out why he cares since he home schools his kids.

Though we gotta say that Bob has a face only a mother could love.

It seems that Bob got upset that we posted a notice on behalf of the group protesting the virgin auctions going on out west river. Bob clearly doesn't understand the nuance of helping your kids understand their value in the world and an honest view of their sexuality does not mean you parade them around like livestock and jam bible verses down their throats. We ought to get ahold of Bob in about ten years when one of his daughter rebels and ends up pregnant due to her ignorance of contraception and sex ed.

Bob decided to make sure he left no doubt to his true feelings when he emailed us this:
"Instead of protesting the Purity Ball, why not have your own event and call it the "Slut Ball" or something? After all, if you hate sexual purity so much, you should be proud of being a promiscuous slut, right?"

Because to a hate filled theocrat like Bob everything is black & white, no in between. If you don't approve of them twisting some poor girls sexuality into some sort of livestock prize your a slut "or something". Well Bob, the idea of "sexual purity" is a male dominated idea with some rather twisted overtones. If trying to educate girls with facts and a scientific based sex ed programs so they can choose abstinence as part of an informed decision they make as part of their personal life is wrong, we don't wanna be right!
We heard Bill Napoli pushed the bidding on your daughter pretty high. How much did you get for her, eh?

Public Ripping Napoli The "Simple Rape" Guy Apart

Check out the thread at Clean Cut Kid. One of the comments from the public to Napoli's lame attempt to re-explain his sick twisted "simple rape" concept hit right to the heart of the issue.

"

I think this commentor who responded to Napoli's response, kind of hits the nail on the head:

Napoli's definition of "simple rape" is crafty, but disingenuous. For the sake of his arguement he conveniently defines statutory rape as "consensual sex between an 18-year-old with a girlfriend or boyfriend of 16" so it sounds like it only refers to horny teens with a couple of unremarkable years difference in age.

My daughter was barely 14 when she was raped in such a manner by a 44 year-old man. He didn't have to use violence - he used coercion, manipulation, and an insidious perversion of her trust and naiveté. The repercussions for my child have not been "simple." They were and continue to be horrible and vicious. This criminal did violence to my daughter, and to sluff it off as "simple" is offensive in the extreme.

And to add insult to injury Napoli thinks my child should have to suffer a pregnancy conceived of this horrendous act? And his appalling answer to consigning an innocent like my baby girl to that torture is "(shrug) life isn't easy."

I'm a man and a Christian. I never had much use for the crap from pro-choicers and their feminist ilk. But I'm finding I have even less use for the compassionless crap that's now coming from pro-lifers and their Napoli-onic mouthpieces."

Why Are The Anti-Choice People So Afraid?

They don't want it to go to a vote, why? They claimed it was what the people of SD wanted, and that the legislature supposedly spoke for the people of SD (never mind the legislature voted to bring the ban to a public vote but was shot down by Hunt). So why are they now so afraid to have this thing go to a vote of the people?? Shouldn't they WANT it to go to a vote to reaffirm their claims?
Here's a quote from today's Argus:
" "Do not make it easy for them. Make them work for every little signature they can get," said ban supporter Leslee Unruh, president of the Alpha Center"

Clearly they know what they have done and the know that the people of SD do not support this kind of religious based extremism they have thrust upon our state.

Signing the petition is not just showing your desire to bring this to a public vote, its showing your desire for fair, honest real govt. and your distaste for a handful of people trying to hijack your state govt. for their own means. Please sign, grab a petition and get signatures, urge others to do so. Lets get this to a vote and end once and for all the myth that South Dakota is a harsh fundamentalist state.

Cool Site - Justice For Women

This Minnesota based blog covers aspects of reproductive choice from a Catholics for Choice point of view.
Check them out.

Protests Against The Virgin Auctions

A group protested the "Purity Ball" where men bring virgins to show them off and tell them about their "gift from god" that was put on by the SD Taliban & The Abstinence Til Marriage Clearinghouse in Rapid City last night.

They are also going to be protesting the Virgin Show in Spearfish tonight. You can contact Melissa at the email below. The Virgin Show is being held tonight (Sat.) at the Holiday Inn in Spearfish at 6:30.

It might be a great venue to point out the Show's sponsor, Leslie Unruh's criminal past as an illegal baby broker. It would only be fair to let those poor unknowing girls know that Leslie would love to sell their babies for a nice profit. Kinda goes hand in hand with keeping them ignorant about contraception and sex ed.

replyemail = rubyblood@gmail.com

Planned Parenthood Community Meeting

What: Community Action Team Meeting
When: Thursday, March 30, 6 - 8 p.m.
Where: Rapid City Library (610 Quincy St.), Meeting Room B
Who: Planned Parenthood of Rapid City, 605-341-2545
Why: Learn all about HB1215, the upcoming political process and how you can help make a difference in this political battle.

Courtesy of Robbinsdale Radical

SD Taliban Knocked Back On Their Heels

The SD blogs are full of stories today about the deer in the headlights reaction to the groundswell to bring this heavy handed abortion ban to a public vote.

Bill Napoli of raped virgin fame now is backpeddling publicly stating that maybe we should look for "common ground" on the abortion issue. Why was he not looking for "common ground" when he was voting for a bill with no execeptions at all.

Now Hunt and company are whining about the efforts to bring this insanity to a public vote claiming the legislature should not be questioned. How ironic considering the legislature overwelmingly voted initially to just put this to a public vote and Hunt used a procedural action to strike that vote of the legislature. They also tried to claim its an out of state effort. Its not.
The people and funding involved are South Dakotans. Its a local movement and every time we send someone out to check these things out there are MORE PEOPLE and more new people showing up.

SD Healthy Families Announcement

The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families announced their group and their first effort, to bring the over-reaching abortion ban to a vote of the people.

"One of the major concerns they had with the ban was the lack of exception for the health of the mother and for rape and incest. "An overwhelming majority of South Dakotans believe that the governor and the legislature went too far. This legislation is extreme and does not reflect the values of South Dakotans who want families to be able to make personal decisions about health care without government interference, said Jan Nicolay, spokesperson for the campaign."

Concerns were also expressed that the far reaching law as it stands dictates the "values" and opinions of one group of people on the entire state.

We at the blog would add that all families, societies and religions or philosophies have values and are equally valid as any other groups "values". Families should be allowed to make decisions with their doctors without government intrusion.

There was a large group of volunteers at the meeting spanning social classes, age and gender. Petitions are circulating now to be signed. You can sign the petition at Planned Parenthoods office or contact SD Campaign for Healthy Families to contact a petition carrier.

If you want to get involved and make a difference here's your chance. To get involved contact SD Campaign for Healthy Families and sign up to lend a hand in whatever way you can.

www.sdhealthyfamilies.org

To volunteer or find out more visit their website
or contact Nathan Peterson
info (at) sdhealthyfamilies.org
or call 605-221-5642

Today's Funny

Thanks to Clean Cut Kid, its a good laugh. Click the link for a larger version.

Rhode Island BANS Abstinence Programs

From Associated Press
PROVIDENCE - Rhode Island education officials have banned from public schools a federally funded abstinence program that civil rights advocates said embraced sexist stereotypes and included a voluntary student health survey that violated privacy laws.

It taught students that girls should wear clothing that doesn't invite "lustful thoughts" from boys. The book described men as "strong" and "courageous" while women were called "caring."

A speaker on an accompanying videotape said abstinence helped him "honor my relationship with Jesus."

Pawtucket's top school official complained that he was duped by Heritage officials and halted the program even before a parent complained to the ACLU.

"We really don't promulgate any religious opinion in this school system. I think basically that's what they were trying to do here," Pawtucket Schools Superintendent Hans Dellith said.

The petition is ON! New group formed

South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families
The new group formed to put the abortion ban to a public vote and clearly has larger goals within the state. The Argus just posted this.

Former state legislator Jan Nicolay spoke to the media and announced a public news conference
tomorrow at 11am at the Downtown Public Library in Sioux Falls. Ms. Nicolay said this:
"She said the organization has a goal of “taking care of families and children” and its formation was prompted by passage of the abortion ban and other legislative debate during the past session."

We will post more information tomorrow as soon as we know the results of the news conference.

Why do anti-choice groups need a rally?

I noticed a news blurb that the anti-choice "people", they didn't even specify a group, are having a rally in Sioux Falls. If they won the law they wanted what do they need to rally about?

Opposition To Gay Rights On The Decline

"The number of people who say they strongly oppose gay marriage has dropped from 42 percent in early 2004 to 28 percent now. Strong opposition has dropped sharply among senior citizens and Republicans."

"Conservatives always lose these battles in the long run. You have to remember that "conservatives" were the driving force behind keeping interracial marriage illegal in this country. They were the driving force behind keeping women out of the workforce and keeping them from voting. They've always been wrong and they always lose in the long run."

Clean Cut Kid Story
News Article

Let's hope that hateful discriminating conservativism become the "disco" of this decade.

Women's health services to set up on reservations.

"To me, it is now a question of sovereignty." President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, says "I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction."

This concept also has the added benefit of promoting access to healthcare on the reservations.
One would assume this would also mean they would not be bound by the laws intended to bar access to contraception. Can reservations run mail order pharmacies?

Thanks to Clean Cut Kid for the scoop on the story

Department of Homeland Decency

Frank sent us these links to his site.

The Decency Test

The Department of Homeland Decency: Decency Rules and Regulations Manual

Copies of the manual will be required reading in the state school system next year, get your copies now.

Bill Napoli, SD state pervert is getting national attention.

Article from the Huffington Post about the infamous Bill Napoli. It seems the rest of the US finds him as creepy as most of SD does. I wonder if he will be at the "Purity Ball" in Rapid City scoping out the virgins.

Putting Women Back In The Kitchen

An excellent article at Salon outlining the true intent of the "pro-life" religious movement.

Twenty Questions - Baby Killing Edition

Courtesy of Molly Saves The Day

Use the link to the original, its long.

Pro-life. Saving unborn or punishing women?

From Alas, a blog

The State Isn't Talking.

Much to are amusement, we finally received a response from the state AG's office. We asked them about the total in the litigation subfund and status of any ongoing decisions relating to the fund, such as if private donations will be public record.

They sent us back a copy and paste of the text of SB154 and this one sentence:
This is all of the information we are providing at this time."

So much for govt. transparency.

Donating to the abortion litigation fund may be illegal

Pudentilla's Perspective notes a SD statute that may make not only the supposed mystery donor Steve Kirby in violation of the law but possibly anyone donating to the fund?

This recent Village Voice article outlines the legality (or lack thereof) of the private donations to fight a federal case on behalf of the state where the state nor the public want to pay for said fight.
It also quotes Steve Kirby when asked if he is the mystery donor:

"But when asked if he was a donor, Kirby responded, 'No comment on that one.' "

So why is it that a number of out of state legal minds and media clearly see something crooked and illegal going on? Why is the Argus etc. quiet on the issue? Why are people in Pierre at both the AG's office and other state offices being rather secretive about this? Just remember you work for us, not Steve Kirby.

Steve Kirby - Abortion Ban Mystery Donor?

The blogs are abuzz this morning with the word on the street that Steve Kirby is the mystery donor pledging the one million dollars to the abortion ban state litgation fund. The state is trying to decide if the donations to the state fund will be public record or not. One has to wonder if the supposed million dollars not showing up yet is Kirby waiting to assure he can keep his anonimity to avoid a huge backlash against him and his business ventures. More here as we get info throughout the day.

No Million Dollars

The Argus released the amount in the abortion ban litigation subfund this morning.

$7157.00

That's it, about enough to buy a mediocre used car. Dispite the million dollar donor and a letter writing campaign by Leslie Unruh. So exactly where is the million dollars?

It's not in the fund, no comment has been made about it being held elsewhere pending something. So where is it? Curiously those who claimed it existed are now quite silent about the whole thing.

Fantastical Fairy Fabrications

David Palmer wrote a great article debunking the gay agenda nonsense currently being pushed like cheap crack by the fundie cults. He broke apart every shred of their "facts" trying to frame gays as a threat to marriage. He also mentioned a claim by fundamentalist leaders that gays are behind abortion. Bizzare as it sounds, it would explain some of the rantings coming out of the neighborhood wingnuts as of late.

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/14088.htm

Rounds Approval Rating Takes A Monumental Drop

Chad at Clean Cut Kid scooped this today

Survey USA released a poll showing Gov. Mike Rounds took a 29 point hit in his approval rating in the last month. The was a larger approval drop than Gov. Blanco took to her approval right after Katrina. There seems to be a backlash brewing. With reports from Dakota Today about a rather lackluster interest in Rounds and his free t-shirts at the Winner farm show, and Todd Epp's report of Thune being boo'd at the State A's it sure sounds like discontent is brewing.

Mikey, I think the people are speaking. I heard Household Finance is looking for collectors, and they have a great incentive plan and free trips for top earners! Ya might want to check them out.

Minor correction

The original story run last week about Dr. Glenn Ridder and Sioux Valley Hospital ran for a few days with a misspelling in the body of the article. The correct last name spelling of the Dr. in question IS Ridder, not Ritter. We discovered this and corrected the original post, but wanted to make sure the error was pointed out.

You can always contact Kelsey Krabbenhoft and express your concern. Maybe he would tear himself away from trying to get the Vikings training camp here to pay attention to what his doctors are doing.

Kelby K. Krabbenhoft
President/CEO, Sioux Valley Hospitals
& Health SystemTel: 605/333-6425
Fax: 605/333-1952

Dan Blue, MD President, Sioux Valley Clinic	Tel: 605/328-2932

South Dakota Bureau of Misinformation

Feeling frustrated with no news about the abortion litigation trust fund out of the media, we did some digging ourselves. What we found was frustration. We contacted the Bureau of Administration, the office that is supposed to be managing the fund. The person in the office became rather nervous that we were asking about this and scrambled for non-answers. She finally told us that "it was pending an opinion from the Attorney General's office". When we asked what about it was pending, the entire issue or just the details such as total, names & amounts being made public, we were given a rushed "I don't know". She clearly did not want to talk about this.
She also nervously demanded to know who we were and why we wanted to know. We explained and told her we would contact the AG's office instead.

Upon contacting the AG's office we again got the nervous runaround when we asked about the sub fund. The staff at the AG's office refused to answer any questions including if there was even just a press release available anywhere on the subject. So why is this whole thing a hot potato nobody wants to talk about? Were still waiting on a contact back from their office, supposedly to tell us something. If anyone has any info about this please let us know.

The Baby Market - Will It Return?

Yesterday I was re-reading a recent post at Dakota Today that referred to a Media Girl story about Leslie Unruh's arrest & prosecution for running a baby mill back in the 80's. As I was reading through the comments I heard a phrase I had not heard for ages "maternity home".

While reading the comments about women forced to sign over their children for adoption, I remembered something that had long since been filed into the back of my memory. Something filed away to be purposely forgotten. One of my siblings, branded as an "unwed mother" had been forced to give her child up for adoption against her will. At the hospital she was forced to sign adoption papers before they would let her see the baby. She was allowed to see the baby once and was sent home with a blurry old polaroid and a heavy heart. She spent the years after this writing letters and poems to this child expressing her pain and sorrow, trying somehow to apologise for being forced to sign away her rights as a natural mother.

As I read on and followed links I found that her experience was far from isolated. The volume of women and children who were forcibly separated through coercion, force or outright theft is considerable. The demand for healthy white babies was strong in the 60's and 70's. This was a lucrative business that made many people very rich.

Digging up this ugly part of our history made words of some of the pro-life cult all the more haunting. People like Hunt, Unruh and others have commented about the lack of enough "adoptable" babies in the US, and what they considered the too restrictive adoption laws.

I thought that the old tactics of the maternity home and coerced adoptions had gone away. Sadly by doing a simple Google search they still exist. One even showed the price list for an adoption for those wanting to buy a baby. With Unruh's past record and their stated desire to obviously see the old baby mill system come back one has to wonder of the true motivations of many in the pro life cult.

All I can say is my nephew must have made someone a tidy profit.

Imagine - Regime Change

Todd Epp makes a very good case for NOT bringing the abortion ban to a vote, at least not yet.


Give it a read, think about it. It makes sense.
The abortion obcessed wingnuts have used this issue as their rally cry for years. Many political observers have projected that with abortion off the table the neo-republicans have little to whip their followers up about. What are they going to run on in '06? They stellar record of moving the state forward? They hold power now and just lost their rally cry (abortion). They have little left to run on and the stigma of being a bunch of loons in the eyes of real republicans, libertarians and independents. Those who voted for this ban should be just hung with their own noose.
Look at what Dover PA did to their school board after the creationism mess.

Abortion is a distraction from some deeper moral issues.

That is such a compelling statement it needs to be said twice.
Abortion is a distraction from some deeper moral issues.
Abortion is a distraction from some deeper moral issues.

Northern Valley Beacon Blog's most recent post raises some larger questions about the cult of abortion.

"The abortion issue has resolved itself into a cult. It is the cult of Zygotolatry. People phantasize that allowing zygotes to develop into embryoes and fetuses gives such believers moral stature. Their phantasies allow them to ignore the history of death and discrimination and oppression that is a part of life for many in South Dakota. It allows them to assume virtuous postures while they push many citizens of the the state back into the feudal social and political conditions of the Dark Ages."

All we can say is, well said.

The Real Threat To Family

So many in the radical right aka "family values" crowd are quick to blame women and gays for the "erosion of the family". Curiously they never seem to mention HOW either acutally do this.
South Dakota has the highest percentage of working mothers in the US. Most families in South Dakota have a hard time making ends meet and with many single parents, working is a necessity, not choice.

Grandmother, Barbara Ehrenreich writes a compelling article about the real enemy of the family.

"If anyone is "ruining" the American family, it's all the employers who refuse to recognize that their employees have family responsibilities, as well as jobs. I'm thinking of two categories of employers, which often overlap: 1) Those who don't pay enough for their employees to live on, thus forcing them to work second jobs, and 2) those who abuse their salaried employees with expectations of ten or more hours of work per day. Apparently there are more and more such anti-family employers, as Americans now surpass even the famously workaholic Japanese in annual hours on the job. From 1979 to 2000, Japan reduced the average annual hours worked by 305, whereas the United States reduced its annual hours by a whopping total of four, according to The State of Working America, 2004-2005. All variety of things suffer when work expands to fill evenings and weekends-health, for example, and citizenly participation. How can you frame an opinion on the issues if you never get a chance to read or have long discussions with friends? But families-and especially children-take the worst hit. It's just not possible to be a responsible and responsive parent or spouse if your work leaves you with barely enough time to shower."

Between A Rock And A Hard Place - Being Christian in South Dakota

Being Christian in South Dakota is not an easy thing for many people these days. They get lumped in with the crazy fundamentalists by some, accused of "not being Christian" by others. We have heard more and more frustration from people feeling caught in the middle between society at large and the fundamentalists claiming to speak for all of their faith. Check out our link to The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. They list a number of Christian and other religious groups who support the right for reproductive education and safe access to medical procedures.

If anyone doubts the hassle the South Dakota Taliban can inflict on anyone who speaks out against their crusade, accounts like this leave no doubts. "A year ago Justin Lena, a member of the Rapid City fellowship and chair of the local Democratic Party, wrote a letter to the newspaper advocating the availability of emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms for women who are raped. The day the letter was published someone threw flaming liquid on his lawn."

The Unitarian Universalist Church article

In a state where the majority list Christian as their religion in the last census and the majority of the state does not support this abortion ban by all recent polls, clearly the state's religious community is not packed with right wing fundamentalists.

Recent Misinformation

A couple of pieces of misinformation have been floating around.

First was a claim that Focus South Dakota is some evil out of state entity and some sort of cover group for Planned Parenthood.

Here's the truth:
Focus South Dakota is an UMBRELLA group. That means they are a number of groups getting together for a common cause. Who would not expect NARAL or Planned Parenthood to have an interest in an Umbrella group. Both groups are actually very minor players, neither are major financial contributors. PP being #12 and NARAL being #30 out of 38 contributors. The officers of the umbrella group are also South Dakotans. If someone wants to claim outside influence because of out of state contributions they need to also look at the ton of out of state funding and influence in the anti-choice fundamentalist groups.

Second was a claim that RU486 was rampantly killing women. They failed to look at the facts and instead made a wild claim.

Here's the truth:
Those two women did not follow FDA-approved instructions for a drug-induced abortion.
In the four California cases, the second course of pills was administered vaginally, an "off-label" use that studies have shown to be effective. The FDA previously has said the abortion pill remains safe enough to stay on the market. The rate of sepsis is about one in 100,000 uses, comparable to infection risks with surgical abortions and childbirth.
This same drug is being researched further as it is showing promise as a treatment for a number of cancers and other diseases.

The CNN Article
The stats on Focus South Dakota

South Dakota's First Human Livestock Show

South Dakota will be holding its first human livestock show in April. The "purity ball" will be sponsored by the Abstinence Misinformation Authority for men to show off their fine future breeding stock. This quote from the flyer made at least one of us feel the need to shower with lysol and a wire brush: "This night is a dinner and ball-room dance event which celebrates your “little girl” and her gift of sexual purity."

Hymens will be inspected at the door, because we all know that effects resale value.

While most sane people are in support of abstinence being taught in a truthful health related
setting and also having parents involved in their kids lives, this is just darn creepy.

Will they have numbers pinned to the back of their ballgowns?
Argus Article Here

The Dark Alliance between SVH and the Anti-Choice Empire

Dr. Glenn Ridder is board member of the Abstinence Clearinghouse and the Medical Director for Alpha Center in Sioux Falls. He also has a long track record of being involved with some very fringe anti-choice fundamentalist Christian groups such as “One More Soul”. One More Soul believes “Through their pro-life work they realized that the foundation of abortion is contraception, and that contraception must be rooted out before abortion would end. The more they learned about contraception the more they were convinced that it was at the root of numerous social ills.”

Oddly, Dr. Ridder was one of the doctors who testified before the Abortion Task Force farce set to determine the state of South Dakota’s stance on the issue. Nowhere in the Task Force report does it disclose Dr. Ridder’s involvement in any of the previously mentioned fringe organizations. It appears that his testimony was presented as that of an unbiased doctor practicing in Sioux Falls. That is hardly the case.

Dr. Ridder’s was also involved in a very bizarre malpractice case involving a post surgical transgender patient. Dr. Ridder refused to treat a patient because he “objected to her surgery”, referring to the transgender surgery the patient had recently had in Aberdeen, SD.
The patient was suffering from severe internal bleeding and a number of other issues related to the recent surgery. The fact that a doctor would refuse to treat someone clearly in serious medical need over his moral objections to the procedure that put the patient is dire need is downright scary. Would you want to be in this guys hands?

But it gets better. You would think the only place you would run into this rightwing nutball turned MD would be some place like Alpha Center, you would be wrong. He innocuously works for Sioux Valley Hospital at their 69th street clinic as a Family Practice doctor. He also was in the employ of Sioux Valley in his role as a staff MD for them when he refused to treat a desperate post surgery victim on “moral grounds”.

How many patients ended up in Dr. Ridder’s office, assuming that going to a mainstream clinic or hospital like Sioux Valley they would get a competent, mainstream medical doctor? Instead they were in the hands of someone with not only a wacky agenda, but one that directly involved his practice of medicine. How would he treat the female coming to him for medical help, If he does not approve of her lifestyle, or her need to obtain contraception? God forbid the homosexual male that might have landed in his office unknowingly and something about his sexual health came up? People like Dr. Ridder should come with a warning label and Sioux Valley is certainly remis in their duties as health providers to be subjecting unknowing patients to this nut.

Todays bit of humor

Doug Wilkens at Dakota Today found this and it was just too funny not to repost elsewhere.

The Rounds Hunt Shuffle

Days after Gov. Rounds signed the abortion ban into law he quickly backpeddled with the media. He now claimed "its not my bill" and told reporters he will not campaign for the bill.

Now faced with polling results etc. showing South Dakota's distaste for this overreaching bill, Roger Hunt is doing some waffling of his own. He was recently cited by "Watertown Public Opinion" and a few other sources that his bill doesn't really ban abortions in the case of rape or incest. Of course that might be the case if the moon is full, on a tuesday and your wearing one green sock and one red sock. He claimed that emergency contraception could still be used for rape and incest victims. BUT it can't be used if the medical staff knows they are already pregnant, and only within that short window. That's if you can find emergency contraception ANYWHERE in the state, AND find a willing hospital and doctor AND pharmacist willing to give it to you. Since one of the two big hospitals refuses to carry it and the majority of the outlying areas do not carry the item at all finding it could be more like hitting the lottery. Anyone outside of that short window to go on their quest for emergency contraception is flat out of luck. Just pray that if you get raped you get away within that short window of about 72 hours to go on your quest.

The bigger question is WHY the unholy inquisitor himself is now waffling on his crusade?
I wouldn't mention tar or feathers in his presence right now.

Black Hills voters strongly against the abortion ban

In the recent poll of voters one of the things not initially mentioned was that Black Hills voters were against the abortion ban by 61%, more than the Sioux Falls area's opposition to the ban.

Read the Rapid City Journal article

The article also stated that the facts are starting to pan out to show that Hunt & Unruh may have grossly underestimated the republican response to this law.
Good to know there are still some real republicans left in the state.

The reality of life and hard decisions.

Kelo ran a rather honest print story on their site where they interviewed a married woman, who used contraception but still ended up is the situation of making a choice.
Its gives a good insight into the reality of some people's lives.

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail2820.cfm?Id=0,46749

Delusion and petty humor

In yet another fine showing of Leslie Unruh's slipping grasp on reality, today she claimed that she thinks people who oppose the lack of exceptions for rape & incest in the abortion ban would still vote for it.

Of all the people I have heard from, those who were on the fence about the whole thing were the most concerned about the lack of exception and felt that was THE reason to scrap the whole thing. I have also heard this from a few anti-choice people, that the lack of exception concerned them greatly and enough to turn them from the bill.

Some people are meant for politics and social movement and some are meant for spending their days getting their hair bleached and hanging out at the golf course making snarky comments about others choice of clothing. As to what Ms. Unruh's true calling should be in life, I will leave that up to you.

From the Argus article today:
"I think the people who would want the additional exceptions would still vote with this," she said. "Everyone agrees there are too many abortions, so here's a chance to do something about it."

"I'm hearing a lot of things that are making us giggle over here. I've got to say, this has been the most fun we've had since the thing started," she said.

http://www.argusleader.com

Umbrella Group formed to fight the abortion ban

Per the Argus article:
http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060315/NEWS/60315011

Focus South Dakota is working on an umbrella group to coordinate the petition drive. As soon as I find out more verified info it will get posted here.

The humor factor in the article though, is Leslie Unruh's comment about the poll recently sponsored by Focus South Dakota and done by a legitimate research company
Robinson, Muenster & Associates.

Ms. Unruh claimed the poll was biased, even though it was done using proper methodolgies and by a third party research group. Meanwhile she did an unscientific phone poll, of god only know who that she claimed said 67% of the state support the ban.

She clearly doesn't have a clue about how polling works, what makes it accurate or even worthy of looking at. Stay tuned for more humor provided by Ms. Unruh, at least she's good for a laugh.

JAIL tied to the Abortion Ban - a scary combination

Progressive on the Prairie has quite the scoop!
He has clearly tied the anti-choice crew to the JAIL amendment.
There seems to be a huge issue now hanging over the JAIL deal.
The anti-choice crew clearly see it as a way to overturn any judiciary
ruling they do not favor and put the judges in jail. Read the entire article, Progressive provides some compelling proof.


http://prairieprogressive.blogspot.com/2006/03/abortion-and-jail.html

From the article:
No one should be surprised Unruh has such a view. His wife is one of the leaders of the anti-abortion movement and he is the registered agent for her anti-abortion pregnancy counseling service. He was one of the "medical professionals" on the South Dakota Task Force on Abortion. The objectivity he brought to the process is revealed in a recent op-ed piece he wrote for the Rapid City Journal. In addition to comparing Roe v. Wade to the Holocaust, his arguments for South Dakota's abortion law include:

* "Women want to have the right to have unlimited sex with men they don't like or don't want to have babies with."

* Opponents of the law "feel that if everyone in the world had enough latex, unlimited sex and free access to abortions, somehow we would all live in utopia."

It appears Unruh sees J.A.I.L. as a worthy corollary to the abortion ban. In an opinion piece he wrote for an ultraconservative publication last November, Unruh said passage of the initiated measure would allow South Dakota to be "the first state in the nation to hold judges accountable only when they violate the constitution by over-ruling state referendums and/or legislation passed by elected officials." In other words, if any judges rule that the abortion ban ("legislation passed by elected officials") is unconstitutional, they could be hauled before J.A.I.L.'s grand jury so it could, in Unruh's words, "throw [the] judges in jail." Thus, J.A.I.L. is a vehicle to attack judges who might apply stare decisis and the constitutional right of privacy. This is just another aspect of the fact the intiative seeks to create a mechanism to threaten the judicial system with condoned vigilantism and to nullify any restraint on the extremist views of a vocal minority.

What really happens when you have abstinence only sex ed.

Indiana is a shining example of the result of having abstinence til marriage as your only form of sex ed.
They now have the highest instance of unplanned pregnancy in the US.

http://thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060313/NEWS01/603130301/1002

Just remember, your legislature tried to pass this here this last session.

What petition to sign.

An out of state "group" has filed for a petition to get the abortion ban up to a public vote.
Curiously there is no record of this group anywhere online.
Please use caution when signing any petition to assure that the one you sign is being conducted by a legit group that fully intends to count and submit your signature to be counted.

With the possibility of multiple petitions to purposely dilute the signatures, please make sure your signing whatever one eventually gets circulated by one of the core groups truely organized and with the intent of bringing this to the public vote. Planned Parenthood is still reviewing the possibility of sponsoring a petition but has not done so yet.

Before you sign, see who is sponsoring it and ask questions.
Make sure your signature gets counted.

It's always someone else's fault.

Outspoken crusader for the anti-choice movement Carrie Sanchez has been busy with her part time job, telling people she regrets an abortion she chose to have 11 years ago.
Ms. Sanchez has spoken to the legislature, various media outlets and pretty much anyone who would give her the time of day to indulge her in her desire for attention. She claims that as a 21 year old college student her parents forced her to have an abortion. Nobody can force a 21 year old to do anything except through illegal actions such as kidnapping.

More likely this was Ms. Sanchez's choice. It could have been a choice between her parents affection, financial support for her education etc. But any 21 year old adult certainly has choices and is capable of free will. Ms. Sanchez made a choice based on her options and desires. She claims this all happened against her will and that when she arrived at the clinic out of state, she changed her mind. So why did she not leave?

By her own admissions she met with a doctor, but she claims it all "happened so fast" that she was unable to leave or express her desire to not have this procedure?

Anyone who has ever been to a medical clinic knows the pile of forms, releases etc. one must sign themselves as an adult. Her claim that this was all forced upon her against her will is utter nonsense, or she needs to be filing kidnapping and assault charges.

She cried aligator tears to the media about how she is suffering, needs anti-depressants and constant counseling. Since she refuses to take responsibility for her actions, clearly she will never move on and get better. Instead she continues to blame her parents, while she demands that the option of choice in this matter be removed from the future of every woman who treads the dirt of South Dakota. Why? Because she was uncapable of being responsible for her actions.

Just think, if every time one person regretted something they did that option in life was forever removed as an option for everyone.

SD poll shows majority want a vote on the ban

A recent article in the Argus Leader showed that a recent poll done by a research firm showed the majority of SD wants the abortion ban to go to a vote and a majority would vote to shoot down the abortion ban.
Read the article here.

I thought SD cared for its Veterans

This is a tad off topic for this blog, but this is such an important issue that seems to have been swept under the rug without any obvious reason. For some reason there is a reluctance by the State of SD to have our Iraq war vets tested for depleted uranium. Why?

You can read the whole story on Todd Epp's Blog

Fundamentalism, Shame and their crusade

An interesting theory on religious history and psychology that explained many of the seemingly horrendous acts of religious fundamentalist tied the extreme shame piled on their followers and their outward intolerance and violence.

The constant barrage by their church and fellow followers declaring them sinners, flawed, unworthy overburdens their psyche with shame.
They are horrible sinners saved only by the grace of God.
They judge each other constantly on a goodness vs. badness scale and use this same measure on the outside world.
These people become obcessed with maintaining their goodness factor, even if its just on the appearance level. Any questioning or going against the fundamentalist dictates automatically make the questioner shameful.

The most disturbing is blaming others. Blame allows the blamer to transfer the sin to others. Having someone else to blame the ills of society on relieves the followers from ever taking responsibility for these ills in any way and allows their group and mindset to remain pure in their eyes.

This theory of why fundamentalists choose to attack outside society as being evil or wrong hits close to home. Many of those followers claim they are going to "clean up South Dakota" or make people "behave" through strict religious based laws. The movement to ban sex ed, contraception, abortion access and the attempt to ban gay rights are all examples of attempts by the same group of people to blame outside society for not following their rigid belief system.

The first step to determining what to do about this moral nanny crusade is understanding why these people are driven to judge and interfere in the lives of everyone else.

The telling tale of law and sex

Those who want to frame the abortion debate as the only issue don't want you to pay attention to the other things they were busy at this year in the state legislature. The religious reich seems to have a problem with contraception. Sounds odd, coming from a group so up in arms about abortion and unwanted pregnancy. You would think they would support contraception and sex ed. The whole ounce of prevention thing. But no.

These same people have attempted to strip everything out of the state public schools sex ed programs except to tell students that the only "approved" sex is within traditional marriage. They also wanted to make darn sure kids didn't get any information at all about contraception or disease control. A generation of kids in the age of AIDS told to be good little kiddies and wait til marriage armed with nothing but ignorance. A scary thought.

The moral nanny police also don't want anyone to have access to contraception. The derailed a number of bills that would have made sure more people had access to contraception.

So why this wierd we hate abortion AND we hate contraception. This has been so eloquently stated by some of the more forthcoming of the religious reich. They have a box them in and punish them strategy. They want to ban abortion, ban access to contraception and remove any real sex ed in favor of be good til marriage. They hope this will force everyone to only have sex within "traditional marriage" and only for procreation. When asked but what about those forced then to have children against their wishes. It has been stated by a number of the moral nanny police that they see this as punishment for your "crime". The crime of having sex they didn't approve of, or being a victim of rape or incest. But what about all those children that could end up in poverty, neglectful situations you ask? The answer we got was again, punishment for the act. Funny how people who so value life don't seem to care much about it after your born.

Here's links and more info on all the contraception bills this year and their status:

Ban contraception distribution or referral in public schools.
http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2006/1194.htm
Died in house. (luckily)
This would have made it a crime to distribute any form of contraception
in a public school.


Bill to remove sex ed and teach abstinence only based on marriage.
http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2006/1217.htm
Died in the house. (luckily)
Here are some snippets that are quite disturbing:
The instruction shall also teach that it is the expected standard for students to abstain from sexual activity until they are married.
The instruction of sexual abstinence may not include models of instruction based on risk reduction encouraging, promoting, and providing instruction in the use of contraceptive drugs, devices, or methods.
Instruction may not encourage, promote, or provide instruction in the use of contraceptive drugs, devices, or methods.

Bill to ensure accurate and complete sex ed be taught in the schools
http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2006/196.htm
This bill was deferred to the 36th legislative day. This is a tactic used
so legislators do not have to take any action on a bill and can ignore it.
Note that they deferred all of the bills that could have provided beneficial
contraception.

Bill to make health insurance provide coverage for contraception
http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2006/1183.htm
Deferred to the 36th day.

Bill to assure rape victims have access to emergency contraception:
http://legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2006/175.htm
died in the Senate

Bitter little pill

Anyone of the female pursuasion who lives or might visit South Dakota take note.

Emergency contraception is only available at one hospital in the state to our knowledge.
Of the two hospitals in Sioux Falls only one will even offer emergency contraception to a rape victim.
Sioux Valley Hosptial will.
Avera McKennan will not.

This is important information because you may be required to remember this in a post GBH rape stupor when you go for help.

BTW: South Dakota has a forcible rape rate of 46.3 per 100,000. That is higher than New York, California, Louisiana and Texas. South Dakota is 7th highest in the US for forcible rape.
So much for a safe and kind South Dakota.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004912.html

Supreme Court and lack of concensus.

Thought this would be a great first post, words from the Roe ruling back in 73.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, in the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion, had these wise words to say about abortion and religious beliefs:


“… We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.”

“It should be sufficient to note briefly the wide divergence of thinking on this most sensitive and difficult question. There has always been strong support for the view that life does not begin until live birth. It appears to be the predominant, though not the unanimous, attitude of the Jewish faith. It may be taken to represent also the position of a large segment of the Protestant community, insofar as that can be ascertained; organized groups that have taken a formal position on the abortion issue have generally regarded abortion as a matter for the conscience of the individual and her family.”