Three South Dakota "crisis pregnancy centers" have registered to provide incomplete and misleading information to women considering abortions under South Dakota's new coercive and punitive counseling law, which takes effect Friday*. The first CPCs to register are Leslee Unruh's Alpha Center in Sioux Falls, the Care Net Pregnancy Resource Center that associates with Gordon Howie in Rapid City, and the Bella Pregnancy Resource Center in Spearfish.
To the good, if any good can be found in South Dakota's latest attempt to oppress women, Leslee Unruh says she's ready to take her services on the road to serve women who perhaps can't afford the long drive and state-mandated 72-hour wait in Sioux Falls. Ladies, clear a spot in your driveway for Leslee's bus.
The dissembling has already begun. Unruh avers that her counselors don't try to discourage women from having abortions but simply provide information. Never mind that House Bill 1217, the law giving her this newfound unchecked power over every South Dakota woman's personal medical decisions, demands that one of the principal missions of any registering CPC be to discourage abortion.
Unruh is also declining to let the press interview counselors or review counseling guidelines. We the people are mandating this "counseling," but apparently we are not entitled to oversight of the quality of that counseling. Remember, contrary to the state's practice in numerous other counseling fields, the state has not established any certification requirements for the "counselors" providing this mandated service. Women, the opacity of this counseling and its providers should scare you.
The entry of these three deceptive "clinics" into the official anti-abortion propaganda registry at least relieves concerns that the crusaders of patriarchy would conspire to leave the registry empty and make abortion legally unobtainable in South Dakota. Still, the prospect of women subjected to such deceptive propaganda in addition to all the other barriers to seeking a legal medical procedure in South Dakota appalls me. Physicians, if you'd like to help establish an alternative to this bad law, the Madville Times Crisis Pregnancy Center remains a possibility.
*Update 10:35 CDT: HB 1217 takes effect unless a judge rules otherwise this afternoon, as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU seek a preliminary injunction pending a full hearing and judgment on their lawsuit against South Dakota's desire to oppress women further.
This bill makes my blood boil. Mental health counselors have to be licensed but these "pregnancy counselors" do not. And what about after these unwanted babies are born? Are these "counseling" centers going to care then? Of course not... because once those babies leave the birth canals, the anti-choicers lose interest.