Doesn’t anyone find it ironic they have only raised $20,000 to combat HB 1217 lawsuits against the state?

Bill sponsor Roger Hunt, R-Brandon, has said private donors will step forward to cover legal expenses through the Life Protection Fund, which was set up in 2006 to help the state pay to defend previous abortion laws.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that they’ve filed a lawsuit,” Hunt said. “We’ve been expecting this and preparing for it.”

In late March, the fund had a balance of just under $20,000.

About the same amount the average single mother makes in a year in SD, if that. They of course know that the state will have to pony up the money, which is mostly from sales tax revenue, on things like food, from these same mothers. If the anti-choicers were so concerned about LIFE they would be concerned about these children after they are born and the mother’s who have to raise them by themselves, through education and worker training programs. Nope, the same clowns who vote for this crap slash education, slash medicade, and vote against ending a food tax. I’m starting to believe more and more that the neo-cons never want abortion to be illegal, because they couldn’t use it as an issue anymore.

We can yell and scream all we want at each other about whether abortion is ethical or not, but the facts are simple, the 72-hour forced counseling legislature isn’t really needed;

He (Dr. Buehner) said he goes through 25 pages of paperwork with a woman seeking an abortion, including a section requiring her signature on each of 13 pages.

I have to tell them they’re terminating the life of a whole, unique, separate human being. I have to tell them they’re terminating a constitutional relationship with an unborn child. I have to tell them about suicide risk,” Buehner said.

Like I have said before, women don’t just walk into an abortion clinic, get an abortion, and walk out 10 minutes later. HB 1217 is an attempt to limit abortions in our state by making them more difficult to attain, that’s it. It doesn’t help the women seeking an abortion, it only complicates their lives even more, and it certainly doesn’t help the unborn.

Roger, you really need to get a hobby.

Though voters have said TWICE that we are a pro-choice state, some legislators don’t get it. They continue to make it harder for women to have safe access to abortion;

A measure requiring women to consult with pregnancy help centers before getting abortions passed Tuesday in the South Dakota House despite arguments that it probably will be thrown out by courts after an expensive legal battle.

The bill says an abortion could not be performed until at least 72 hours after a woman first meets with a doctor who will perform the abortion.

That doctor would have to determine whether the woman is voluntarily seeking an abortion and whether she is at risk for developing psychiatric or physical problems if she has an abortion.

Before getting an abortion, a woman also would have to consult with a pregnancy help center to get information about services available to help her give birth and keep a child. The state would publish a list of pregnancy help centers that seek to persuade women not to have abortions.

The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Roger Hunt, R-Brandon, said many women have made it clear that they did not get adequate counseling before getting abortions at South Dakota’s only abortion clinic, which is in Sioux Falls. Women have testified in court cases and in legislative hearings that they have been coerced into getting abortions by boyfriends, husbands and others, he said, but the abortion clinic does nothing to help them resist that pressure.

“This is a matter of life. This is a matter of taking life,” Hunt said. “This is about information and blocking coercion. These are all good and noble objectives.”

So what Roger is saying is women getting abortions are to ignorant to understand what they are getting themselves into, but he knows better. Yeah . . . Right.

The measure also would force women to submit to lectures by unqualified counselors or volunteers who argue against abortion because of religious beliefs, Gibson said.

“It substitutes what amounts to harassment, propaganda and coercion for unbiased counseling information,” Gibson said.

Councilors who just happen to be really good friends of Mr. Hunt. While I can understand the outrage by women when it comes to the privacy issues, I am more concerned about the business nepotism going on here. Why not just require a QUALIFIED councilor to be present at PP? And maybe I am off base, but I believe women are told about the procedure before getting it done. I don’t think it is any freaking mystery, abortion terminates a pregnancy. I think it’s time we ABORT some legislators in Pierre and vote them out of office next time around.

Representative Hunt is a prime example of someone who tries to legislate morality while making South Dakotans look foolish for electing such a kook bag;

House Bill 1218 would make any verbal or written surrogacy agreement unenforceable and keep parental rights with the woman who gives birth to the child, regardless of whether she is the genetic mother. The agreements would be unenforceable whether or not there was compensation involved. The law also would establish civil penalties for the intended parents in an agreement and make it a felony for anyone who helps establish such an agreement. Doctors who knowingly assist in medical procedures related to surrogacy agreements also would face felonies.

This is no different then telling someone what sexual position they can use in their bedroom, or who they can have sex with for that matter. Maybe Roger would like to propose legislation that says it is illegal to bottle feed calves and lambs formula milk when their mother won’t or can’t feed them?

“How someone in the Legislature can determine and dictate to parents that want children how they should go about acquiring those children, I think it’s ludicrous,” she said.

Well, that’s Roger, Mr. Ludicrous. He wants to tell everyone else how to live their lives, but when it comes to money laundering that is none of our business.

Theresa Erickson, a lawyer specializing in reproduction issues and executive board member of the American Fertility Association, has been keeping tabs on Hunt’s bill.

“What South Dakota is doing is off the charts,” she said.

What do you mean? That’s the SD state legislature every day, ‘off the charts’