Last updated on 2012.04.24
South Dakota is a rotten place for women's health and policy. Chamberlain government students, Lower Brule tribal members, include that discussion in your questions to Rep. Kristi Noem during her barely announced visit Monday afternoon.
Maybe also ask Rep. Noem if she plans to attend one of the three women's rights rallies taking place here in South Dakota on Saturday, April 28. In Brookings, women and folks who like women will gather at the courthouse at 10 a.m., then march to the Post Office on Main Street. Occupy Brookings issues this announcement for its "United for Women" event:
Help defend women's rights and pursuit of equality! Join us here in Brookings as we and Americans all across the United States come together for a few hours on this day to affirm the full rights of women.
Our Brookings rally will celebrate, among other things, the right of all women to make their own decisions about their own bodies, including their use of contraception; to live free of the threat of violence, in public and in the home; and to have full equality in the workplace.
Come with your signs, your voices, your marching feet and clapping hands! Speak out from the People's Soapbox! Hear wise words from women of the past who have fought for equal rights! Enjoy good music, and sing along for freedom and justice!
A People's Soapbox, where regular folks might express their views, without any vetting? That halves the chances of seeing Rep. Noem there.
Citizens will also demonstrate their support for women's rights at rallies next Saturday on the steps of the Capitol in Pierre. Occupy Rapid City focused on women's issues in its weekly demonstration yesterday; I hear another women's event is in the works for Rapid City next Saturday. These events are part of a national movement promoting "We Are Women" marches next Saturday in all fifty states.
Update 2012.04.24 06:35 MDT: The Rapid City March in Solidarity for Women's Rights starts Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Memorial Park band shell. Folks will march through downtown Rapid City. The Rapid City marchers are flying the banner of UniteWomen.org.
the paper announcement says noem will meet with the lower brule tribal COUNCIL members NOT the lower brule tribal members!!!!!
Ah, good point, Rollin! Let's see if members of the public are allowed to attend.
Kudos to you, Cory, for writing this up and posting it.
Two months ago I thought that by the time these nationwide rallies happened April 28, it would not be a timely issue, that there wouldn't be much participation, and that the actual rallies themselves wouldn't happen.
Surely no state legislature would really pass bills that kept women from having adequate and economically feasible healthcare, that Congress wouldn't really vote against funding programs like Violence Against Women, that states wouldn't really advocate for a medical provider to deny women healthcare based on the provider's moral objections.
There's no way a state legislature would propose and pass a bill that called for state-sponsored rape of women through a vaginal ultrasound.
There's no way any state legislature would aggressively advocate for discrimination against women through employment fairness, pay and basic human rights.
There's no possible way Catholic Churches would turn against the nun's organizations affiliated with the churches for not aggressively supporting the anti-female agenda.
Can men comprehend this? I am female, and I can hardly comprehend it all. So, we'll march and rally April 28 and we will vote for our families and ourselves in upcoming elections, unless the 19th Amendment is repealed by then.
Right on Taunia!!!
It is hard to believe. And really scary.
Planned Parenthood is enduring "hoax patients:" RH Reality Check.
Democrats: get angry!