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South Dakota Abortion Law Promotes Brainwashing

Judge Karen Schreier did not use the word brainwashing in the injunction blocking 81% of South Dakota's atrocious anti-abortion coercive counseling law. New Jersey columnist Eliot Daley does:

What American with an IQ above room temperature could ever imagine that it was OK to force a fellow American to sit through a state-ordered brainwashing that was designed to change his or her mind about something?

Well, incredibly, some Americans who sit in the South Dakota state legislature and Gov. Daugaard think the idea is just fine, thank you very much. And so they have passed a law requiring this country's first mandatory brainwashing of innocent individuals in hopes of persuading them to do what the elected officials want them to do instead of what the individual wants to do [Eliot Daley, "South Dakota Abortion Screenings Amount to State-Ordered Brainwashing," NJ.com, 2011.07.19].

Daley sees in South Dakota's pending abortion restrictions an outright evil infringement on personal freedom and privacy. For some prospective residents and entrepreneurs, our disrespect for personal medical autonomy far outweighs promises of low taxes and low regulation.

17 Comments

  1. Roger Elgersma 2011.07.20

    I know someone who got told by the abortion clinic that the fetus does not feel pain(a lie) and that the baby is a blob of matter that forms into a baby just before birth rather than being a developing baby all along(also a lie). Well duh, these women find out the truth later and then get depressed and suicidal. Better if they have the facts first rather than regrets later.

  2. Douglas Wiken 2011.07.20

    Better if they have birth control and knowledge readily available than propaganda from the theocracy.

  3. Bob Ellis 2011.07.20

    What goes on at Planned Parenthood and through the "mainstream" media is definitely brainwashing. I was once one of these brainwashed pro-abortionists who lived in blissful ignorance, believing what I was told (that it was "just choice" with no mention of the humanity of the child, that the mother had a right to control her own body...and apparently a right to slaughter the body of another human being, and this kind of propagandistic nonsense).

    What American with an IQ above room temperature and the analytical skills of a kindergartener could ever imagine that it was OK to slaughter one's own child, as well as risk breast cancer, future infertility, emotional problems, substance abuse and even death...all in the name of convenience?

    What American with an IQ above room temperature and the analytical skills of a kindergartener could ever imagine that it was OK for an organization that purports to be a "professional" one and one that serves women's health to lie to women about the life residing within their own body (life that they helped create), and lie to women about the health risks posed to themselves by this "procedure"?

    What is "outright evil" is the intentional slaughter of innocent children, and the promotion of that slaughter through means of deceiving women about (a) the human life residing inside them and (b) the dangers that slaughter presents to the mothers themselves.

    For some human beings, ending our contempt for innocent human life, as well as the interference with the informed consent of mothers, far outweighs false promises that life will be better after having killed one's own child.

  4. Roger Elgersma 2011.07.20

    birth control is a woman controling her own body. Abortion is not controling a body, it is killing a body.

  5. Bill Fleming 2011.07.20

    Bob and Roger, why are you ignoring the issues addressed here?

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.07.20

    So, Bob, let me see if I understand your "response": you grant that the government's action under the enjoined statue is brainwashing, but you justify this government brainwashing as a resposne to brainwashing by other entities?

  7. larry kurtz 2011.07.20

    There have been far more children killed by bombers based at Ellsworth than by illegal abortions in the third trimester.

  8. Steve Sibson 2011.07.20

    Cory, I don't think you have Bob right. Brainwashing is when you get only one side of the story repeated over and over agian by academia and the media (abortion is a right). Hearing the other side of the story is called deprogramming (abortion is killing a human being).

  9. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.07.20

    Your assumption, Steve, is that the government's chosen viewpoint is right. Remove that moral smugni-certitude, and you have government brainwashing.

  10. shane gerlach 2011.07.20

    Brainwashing is when you take money to spread hate against your own public stated beliefs Mr. Ellis. Brainwashing is the hypocrisy you spread every time you dare to quote the Bible you misuse in defense of your hatred and lies. Brainwashing is profiting from the pain and suffering that you needlessly cause women across the state.

    Bob Ellis you are a cancer, period and when faced with statements you do not wish to address, you like all of your ilk (lying liars) hide. When faced with the facts from the very Holy Book you have one hand on while the other is in your true masters wallet you melt away.

    I have no hatred for any man Bob Ellis but you try my patience sorely.

  11. Bill Fleming 2011.07.20

    Guys, brainwashing isn't illegal or even unconstitutional. People allow themselves to be voluntarily brainwashed all the time (every time they turn on the TV, for example). Try to stay on point. This is a 1st Amendment issue, first and foremost. Then a 14th Amendment issue.

  12. Chris S. 2011.07.20

    There's no point in trying to reason with the Forced Childbirth brigade. To them, pregnant women are Dirty Girls who need to be punished for having sex. On that issue they'd get along with the Taliban just fine.

  13. Vincent Gormley 2011.07.21

    Right wingers are all brainwashed. So how come their minds are always in the gutter? And Ellis' temp is above room temperature? Wow, look out for the big thaw! Meltdown!

  14. Bill Dithmer 2011.07.21

    A few days before the vote on this issue I made this post on a blog in the Rapid City Journal. At that time KW and DM both told me that there was no such thing as “mind rape”. While I'm not completely sure I think that is what the judge was talking about in her decision. Here is part of that post.

    First lets get something out of the way. It doesn’t matter if you want to call it a piece of tissue, or even a baby, it makes no difference. Possession is nine tenths of the law and in the case of pregnancy it is now and has always been one hundred percent. One way or another the woman is the one that will have to deal with whatever she decides to do, no one else, not Roger Hunt, and not any of the co signers of the bill. In fact after they pass the bill they will in all probability just set back and do nothing to help in any way if a baby is actually born.

    I have learned a new term, for me anyway, it is “mind rape”. That is how a woman feels when someone tells her what she has to do with her own body. Roger Hunt is guilty of “mind rape”. He is just as guilty as a man that has been caught in a woman’s bedroom with his pants off and the woman beat up and tied to the bed with his dna all over the place. Several terms come to mind here.

    First there is Forced Sexual Slavery. Forced Sexual Slavery is the organized coercion of unwilling people into different sexual practices. It is most common in areas such as Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and now South Dakota.

    Next there is
    INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE
    A condition of compulsory service performed by one person, against his will, for the benefit of another person due to force, threats, intimidation or other similar means of coercion and compulsion directed against him.
    Title 18, U.S.C., Sec. 1584, makes it a Federal crime or offense for anyone to willfully hold another person in involuntary servitude. It must be shown that a person held to involuntary servitude was so held for a ‘term.’ It is not necessary, however, that any specific period of time be proved so long as the ‘term’ of the involuntary service was not wholly insubstantial or insignificant.

    Now I ask this. Are we willing to do away with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution? Its not just about owning slaves , its about people being able to make life changing decisions about their bodies without interference from someone else. Its called the right of self determination.

    Placing roadblocks that a woman has to stop at, and hoops that she has to jump through between her and her doctor is “mind rape” there is no other way to describe it. Roger Hunt is guilty of it, all the cosigners are guilty of conspiracy to commit mind rape as are those that would vote for this bill in the legislature.

    That’s how I think women feel about this. There really isn’t anything a man has to compare with this except being a slave, nothing.

    The Blindman

  15. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.07.22

    Well said, Bill, on the issue of the status of the fetus. When the woman must serve that entity's needs for nine months with her own body, fetal status does not matter. The coercion these lawmakers impose on women through the power of the state is an offense on a par with rape.

  16. Douglas Wiken 2011.07.22

    And the GOP specializes in rapist rights legislation even if they try to call it something else.

  17. Erika 2011.07.22

    Thanks, Bill. That's the point I've been trying to make to various people about this law. Interestingly, when I mention the "psychological rape" argument, I get told that if I don't want the coerced counseling then I shouldn't put myself in that situation to begin with, which only proves my point. I guess even if I say "no" to a complete stranger trying to get inside my head, I'm supposed to just sit back and take it because I asked for it. The next thing they'll tell me is if I just relax I might enjoy it.

Comments are closed.