South Dakota Right to Life flunks 19 legislators on its latest anti-abortion scorecard... which means 19 legislators make the Madville Times honor roll for standing up for women's personal autonomy. The list includes 16 Democrats, including gubernatorial candidate Rep. Susan Wismer (1/Britton) and my man Rep. Scott Parsley (8/Madison). Failing to fail are these Democrats:
- D: Rep. Kathy Tyler (4/Big Stone City)
- D: Rep. Ray Ring (17/Vermillion)
- D: Rep. Julie Bartling (D-21/Burke)
- A: Rep. Patrick Kirschman (D-15/Sioux Falls)
An A, Patrick? Boooo! Study harder!
Three Republicans make the RTL F-list/MT A-list: Sen. Larry Tidemann (R-7/Brookings), Sen. Mike Vehle (R-20/Mitchell), and Sen. Craig Tieszen (R-34/Rapid City). None of those Senators faces a Republican primary; Senator Tieszen is unopposed in the general. We thus will not have the welcome opportunity to hear these Republican candidates educate their base as to why RTL's anti-abortion absolutism is really a distraction from good conservative policy-making.
Exactly.
Rich women have full reproductive freedom while women at middle and lower income levels experience chilling effects on their rights. South Dakota's repeated attempts to restrict access to medical care is not only mean-spirited, it's discriminatory anti-choice extremism.
Last night I watched 12 years a slave. Dark time in our history. Made me sick to see even ministers at that time believing some biological humans are more human than other biological humans. Of course this is the mentality behind abortion too. I look forward to the day when human life at any stage, all life for that matter, is treated a sacred. We can love both mom and baby.
South Dakota's cultural history of apartheid makes your allegory all too real, Steve.
True, very very true Larry. And it's not just history, it continues.
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/11/22/new-film-tackles-south-dakota-battle-of-the-abortion-ban/
Of course that evolves to, "hate the sin, not the sinner", Steve. Capital punishment not excluded!
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Rep. Hickey, a key component of this grade is the vote outlawing sex selective abortions. I agree that sex selective abortions would a terrible thing, but this bill bothered me because it seems unenforceable. How would an abortion be determined to be for sex selection and not for some other reason?
In fairness to Mary Duvall (R-Pierre), she is reported to have verbally attacked Jenna Hagger in the legislator's lobby during the passage of HB-1162 because she felt forced to vote for it (or be outed for not being pro-life), even though she did not support it. It is reported that Duvall was so vicious that she made Haggar so upset that she was seen to be leaving the area crying.
I don't understand why lawmakers feel they need to legislate a woman's body. It is mine. What gives anyone the right to tell me what I can and cannot do to it? Having an abortion does not make a woman a bad person. And I can guarantee if they focused more on prevention, education and making healthcare more accessible for all women you will find that abortion rates will drop. And the education part goes towards men as well. Abortions and pregnancy services becoming more accessible doesn't make women rush out and bang everyone just to have abortions. I feel like this is how some rabidly antiabortion people are.
I say SOME, not all.
There are those who would make women slaves to biology, regardless of the circumstances. There are those who would put women in prison for murder if a fertilized egg leaves their body as other than a live birth. Fortunately, a majority on the US Supreme Court is not among those.
I agree Nick, hard to prove.
What you are getting are bills that focus attention on what abortion is... countries using it to kill off girl babies, etc. Bills that focus on the reality of fetal pain. Bills that focus on heartbeats. Bills that put the spotlight on the sick fact that most Down's Syndrome babies are killed. Bills that slow down the process and address the horrific "medical" practices in Planned Parenthood clinics which contribute to the coercion problems. And bills that address the fact that we now know many things we didn't know in 1973, that abortion hurts some women and they deeply regret it.
This really hit me once when a formerly abortion supporting mom told me she was teaching kindergarden and five years after her abortion she started waking up in the middle of the night scouring her bed for her baby and then realizing, in her words, "I killed it." She said she had to quit teaching because all she could see was what her child might have looked like at that age. She told me they can rip the baby out of moms womb but they can't take it out of her heart.
I know not all women have that experience but some do, and some studies say 30% do. Can you think of another medical procedure made available to people if 3 in 10 report deep regrets and psychological problems? Cory knows I can debate all this and I know the pro-choice comebacks. I don't want to debate it. My point is, any way you slice, basic human compassion should kick in, my goodness, we wouldn't dismember a baby bird without anesthesia.
Society is too violent and there is no more violent place than what happens to the most vulnerable of our species in an abortion clinic. We can love both. With capital punishment I've been saying, we have to be consistent - either life is sacred or it isn't, either killing is always wrong or it isn't. Sister Prejean says about those on death row, there's always something left to love. I'd say the same about the marvelous development of human life in the womb. Science is revealing substantial developments in the first two weeks of human life that define us the rest of our days. In 1973, it was just a blob of tissue. To treat women today with 1973 science is an injustice to them.
I've been in the legislature four years and haven't brought forward one pro-life bill, except the death penalty repeal. I've been focusing on the poor, bankruptcy, predatory lending, etc. My view is on the pro-life front what we've already passed will make it through the courts and ultimately the Supreme Court will be presented with a mountain of post-1973 data they have never been presented with before and the six false presuppositions that gave us Roe v. Wade will crumble.
http://www.vice.com/read/the-indigenous-girls-being-pushed-into-canadas-sex-trade-are-getting-younger-and-younger
And Hobby Lobby is heavily invested in contraceptive stocks.
Rep Hickey,how many moms of the Newtown massacre victims wake up wondering what their murdered kids might look like and why doesn't your party restrict guns like they do abortions? One wonders how many of them have mental problems related to their children being murdered and the callous,uncaring attitude of certain pols who are deathly afraid of political challenges from the NRA.
Yesterday on CNN there was a short segment of a woman convicted of murder for beating to death her four year old son, her defense was that she thought he was gay.
Will the next legislative session include a bill by Republicans that allows abortions when the mother feels the fetus is gay?
Ask some of the faux-life advocates of government forced pregnancy if they support SNAP or WIC. I've had only one after prodding give an honest answer. Basically he didn't want his precious tax penny being wasted. ....That would be in his view wasted on hungry breathing kids. I know that isn't true of all anti-choicers, but it does fit the ideological issues basket of, I believe most of the righties.
They claim to be protectors of an embryo, but with the first breath it becomes a financial burden if it needs food assistance, their tax penny.
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Hi, Roger C., I've invaded.
-Ask some of the faux-life advocates of government forced pregnancy if they support SNAP or WIC. I've had only one after prodding give an honest answer. Basically he didn't want his precious tax penny being wasted. ....That would be in his view wasted on hungry breathing kids. I know that isn't true of all anti-choicers, but it does fit the ideological issues basket of, I believe most of the righties.
They claim to be protectors of an embryo, but with the first breath it becomes a financial burden if it needs food assistance, their tax penny.
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Hey jaa dee,
Good to hear from you and that you have invaded. I'll let the Madville faithful that they should be nice to you, at least for awhile!
Pregnant and in detention gives a whole new meaning to original sin:
http://action.dreamactivist.org/bringthemhome/pregnant/
Some good comments on here. Rabid. Yes, that is a good way to describe many in the anti-abortion camp. And it seems I associate the failure of rational thought to go hand-in-hand with rabid or visa versa.
I'm sure anti-woman, anti-choice people would be entirely more credible if all their attention wasn't focused on women only.
I think we all know the list:
#1 Zero Restrictions on Male sexual behavior.
#2 Opposition to support for living, breathing children.
#3 Fighting Against birth control.
#4 Opposition to programs to support single mothers.
#5 Putting barriers in the way of her education and work options.
#6 Opposition to universal childcare.
#7 Pro war.
#8 Pro death penalty.
I know there are more Madizens can add. This short list adds up to an anti-woman, anti-choice agenda. Even those who claim to only be concerned about a fetus, don't hold up to this list. While someone like Troy claims to want to control male sexual behavior, we see time and energy focused on controlling women.
I wish these anti-woman, anti-choice people would develop and demonstrate a true credibility and constancy in their words and their actions. As has been proven ad nauseum, there really would be a reduction in the number of abortions without diminishing the humanity of women and girls.
I wish for that with all my heart.
A sacrosanct humanity includes the holding of free will as sacred - no Pastor Hickey?
gender policing is very scary. "Mike from Iowa" knows what I am talking when I bring up the history of Romania... and when their dictator attempted to control women...er I mean making abortion illegal. Horrific outcome. Horrific. And even now, as our politicians across this country continue to take away women's freedoms, back alley abortions and black market abortion drugs are now becoming the option for women.
It is a true head shaker that our politicians spend so much time and energy on their anti abortion stances..... yet not spend any time on problem solving on how to prevent abortions in the first place. If you aren't being part of the solution - you are part of the problem.
Gender policing. That is what it is.
As seen by the ones passing and or flunking on either side of the aisle, it clearly shows that this is a matter of conscience and does not belong as a political issue, as it is in South Dakota every legislative session.
As far as Jenna Haggar leaving the legislature crying, she should. She is actually Allen Unruh's personal representative, as that is the first place she goes when she comes back from Pierre, to report in.
Deb's point about women's rights leaves out the unequal pay for the same work. South Dakota's was one of four legislatures to first pass and then repeal the Equal Rights Amendment back in the 1970s when it failed by three states' approvals.
Steve Hickey: Using your analogy/belief of 1/3 having severe mental problems afterward, wouldn't that same concerningthought apply to wars and those who fight them being outlawed by similar laws? Would your reasoning stand up to reality???>?
War should be outlawed. Where does that put your comparison and whose reality trumps yours or mine?
Hickey cherry picks numbers.
33% with mental problems? Not true.
Planned Parenthood coercion? Not true.
Organizations like Birthright and the Unruh's scam have been proven, again and again, to twist, distort and lie about the scientific research regarding abortions. It's similar to what Hickey is doing here. In addition, he avoids hard questions. Notice he won't touch any of the many comments about controlling women.
Integrity from the anti-woman side of this discussion would lend them some much needed credibility.
Are you up to the challenge Hickey? We're waiting to hear direct answers from you.
The thing that is The Center of any of these arguments in which religion is appealed to is this:
You are welcome to any beliefs you choose. Really. Any time. Any place. Tell any one you want to. Insist that those who are in your church agree with you. Use any sources to support what you think.
Do Not try to give your personal beliefs the force of governmental approval and/or law.
That's all. Simple, really.
Unfortunately Tyler was less than honest with me when she said she was pro-life. However, I still like her willingness to fight. Rating: lukewarm.
Unfortunately our pro life elected for the most part are mostly lukewarm Bree. Woman are told not to abort but not given much if anything for other opportunities after conception occurs. There was a time this was different and homes were provided for just that. I don't know if it was good or bad, but do know many mothers who gave up children only to be delighted later in life with the children coming back into their life as adults.