Last updated on 2011.01.22
Now the legislative hopper is popping. The South Dakota Legislature has a whack of fun new bills to consider:
- HB 1056 would open the last week of the year for fireworks sales. Now there's a bang-up revenue generator.
- HB 1059 would bar the state cosmetology commission from requiring a hands-on practical examination of applicants seeking to work in the totally hands-on practical field of cosmetology.
- Rep. Hunt and Senator Rhoden show some love for the ladies with HB 1061, to license and regulate midwives.
- Rep. Munsterman sponsors SB 61, which would let me contract for services with the sanitary district of which I am an elected board member. Thanks, Scott! Time to start charging for web design....
- But SB 62 requires sanitary districts to establish reimbursement amounts for meetings, travel, and other related duties. Nertz! Now I suppose the Lake Herman Sanitary District will have to have a meeting.
- SB 63 should get a lot of attention. Senator Garnos takes up Governor Daugaard's suggestion and seeks to repeal the reductions in state aid schools get for maintaining big reserve balances.
- SB 65 would allow private schools not certified by the Department of Education to join the High School Activities Association. Can I get an amendment to include home-school associations? Then I can start the Madison Home-School Debate League so my daughter can try qualifying for Nationals in Lincoln-Douglas debate!
Just an FYI, your link to SB 61 actually points off to HB 1061.
[CAH: fixed! Thanks! :-) ]
South Dakota Midwifery bill is an important step for liberty for families. The hospital lobby has enjoyed the monopoly for the past 16 years. Time to give the right to decide where to have a baby and the right to have Certified attendent back to families!
I agree with Weis. The hospital lobby has been allowed by the legislators to block this option for far to long. Every year more states are passing bills to allow families access to Certified Professional Midwives. They are currently regulated in 27 states, with SD being one of only 8 states that actively ban them. Certified Professional Midwives save families thousands of dollars per birth while assuring safety in the out of hospital setting. They are the only care provider in the United States who has required training in out of hospital birth.
I hope and pray HB 1061 passes! I was lucky enough to be able to cross into MN for care with a Certified Professional Midwife, but for many women in our state, that's just not feasible.
Since ip is banned from the War Toilet maybe someone could ask this over there: Midwives have been the culture among the tribes for, oh, about 12,000 years or so. The Pitocin scandal is being litigated. Marty Jacklow is another AG trying to hide yet another red state failure.
If this is really an insurance issue, and it is, what effect will any statute do to mitigate the numbers of high-risk pregnancies where, as the MS, CNM, Ph.D with whom ip lives describes: "the placenta smells like a cocktail?"
Midwives may be goddesses; but red states fail long before those goddesses arrive on the scene.
Perhaps the Republicans will get it if we tell them not to let government stand between women and their preferred health care providers.