Tag Archives: south dakota

South Dakota Flat-Out Being A**holes To Women Seeking Abortion

Jessica WakemanMarch 1, 2013 //
I'm A Pro-Choice Mom
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Alabama politician says an abortion removes a woman's "largest organ." Read More »
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This is how anti-abortion extremists try to control women’s bodies: they use state legislatures to create bogus and medically unnecessary laws that make it very, very difficult for a woman to have an abortion.

Case in point? South Dakota, which already requires a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion, advanced a bill in its state Senate yesterday to remove weekends and holidays from those 72 hours, meaning women have to wait even longer.

Why do anti-abortion extremists do this? Because South Dakota only has one abortion clinic and it’s a medium-sized state, meaning many women have to travel in order to get the procedure. And traveling means finding childcare, taking time off work, and dealing with other responsibilities. Waiting periods  — especially loooong waiting periods which require at least two trips to the doctor — are intended to make it hella difficult for women to get to the clinic. If the governor signs this bill into law, South Dakota would have the longest waiting periods for abortion in the country.  Keep reading »

Doctors Must Inform Women Of Nonexistent Abortion-Suicide Link, Court Rules

Jessica WakemanJuly 25, 2012 //
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  • Doctors in South Dakota must inform women of a nonexistent link between having an abortion and a risk of suicide, a federal appeals court has ruled. The ruling pertains to a 2005 law that will require doctors to tell a woman before her abortion that “the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being,” and inform her of the “statistically significant risk factors” such as the “increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide.” Except that risk doesn’t exist. I believe that is called a “lie.” [Wall Street Journal, Raw Story]
  • Sam’s Club is dropping its advertising support of “The Rush Limbaugh Show” following sexist comments made towards Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law Student whom Limbaugh derided as a “slut.” Over 150 businesses have also left the show. [Feminist.org]
  • 150 115 years after her birth, let’s remember Amelia Earhart as a feminist pioneer. [Christian Science Monitor] Keep reading »

South Dakota Governor Signs Bill Requiring 72-Hour Wait, “Counseling,” Before Abortion

Jessica WakemanMarch 22, 2011 //

South Dakota, South Dakota, South Dakota. What are we doing to do with you? Governor Dennis Daugaard, a Republican, has signed an extreme bill that will require women seeking an abortion to wait three whole days after meeting with her doctor for the procedure to be performed. This law will now be the longest waiting period in the nation. The bill also requires women receive pre-abortion “counseling” from so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” which are anti-abortion groups that try to dissuade women from terminating pregnancies at all costs. A court challenge is expected imminently. But nevertheless, it’s a shameful day for women’s reproductive rights in America. [Reuters, NPR] Keep reading »

South Dakota To Require “Crisis Pregnancy Center” Counseling, 72 Hour Wait, Before An Abortion

Jessica WakemanMarch 4, 2011 //

You fail at life, South Dakota: the state’s senate has passed a bill that requires a woman wait 72 hours and receive “counseling” from so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” before an abortion. SD’s governor, who is anti-abortion, said he is “inclined” to sign the bill into law. Keep reading »

South Dakota Bill Would Require “Crisis Pregnancy Center” Counseling Before An Abortion

Jessica WakemanFebruary 24, 2011 //

South Dakota, will you stop f**king with us? Enough already! South Dakota’s House of Representatives has approved a bill requiring a woman seeking an abortion to be “counseled” first at a so-called “crisis pregnancy center.”

Proponents of the bill say they are trying to assess whether women are being forced to end a pregnancy, as a doctor would have to sign off that the abortion is “voluntary, uncoerced, and informed.” The bill, which refers to the woman as a “pregnant mother” (agenda, anyone?), requires the woman to have pre-abortion counseling and be informed what kind of help is available to them if they continue the pregnancy. The bill also requires the woman to wait 72 hours after first meeting with the doctor who’ll perform the abortion. That time period is what anti-abortion activists claim is giving women time to think, but in reality it makes scheduling the procedure more difficult for working women or women with children, as they have to go to not one appointment, but two. And considering the vast majority of counties in America do not have an abortion clinic, terminating a pregnancy can involve driving long distances in some parts of the country. Keep reading »

South Dakota Bill Would Make Killing An Abortion Provider “Justifiable Homicide”

Jessica WakemanFebruary 15, 2011 //

A committee in South Dakota‘s House of Representatives has passed a bill that would broaden the legal definition of “justifiable homicide” to include murders done to prevent harm to a fetus — like abortion — which reproductive rights advocates believe is a way to legalize the killing of abortion providers.

Dr. George Tiller, the late-term abortion provider who was murdered in May 2009 at his church in Kansas by an anti-abortion extremist — who later tried to use “the necessity defense” because he genuinely believed he was “saving babies” — is rolling over in his grave right now. Keep reading »

South Dakota Sustains Guilt-Tripping Abortion Law

SimchaJuly 11, 2008 //

In a recent court decision, South Dakota will enforce a law that forces doctors into guilt-tripping their patients before performing an abortion. As if making the decision isn’t hard enough, now the government requires doctors to read an statement to women that says an abortion will “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being” and may lead you to commit suicide. Um. Yeah. While the court claimed the “burden of proof” rested squarely on Planned Parenthood, perhaps there should be some actual proof to the ludicrous suicide link within the law. Although the safe sex organization argued that making doctors read the statement aloud to their patients was an infringement on the First Amendment, since the medical professionals don’t agree with the ideology, the court still wouldn’t budge. Now that’s scarier than unwanted children! [The International Herald Tribune] Keep reading »