“I believe anything the Unruhs tell me.”

Wow. Our governor is even dumber then I thought;

The Republican Governor of South Dakota signed a bill into law Tuesday, formally mandating that women in the state wait three days and visit with anti-abortion activists before undergoing a medical procedure to terminate a pregnancy.

With Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s signature, South Dakota claims the title of having the longest mandatory waiting period for an abortion out of any other state in the nation. About half of the states require patients to wait 24 hours.

There is only one abortion clinic in South Dakota: the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in Sioux Falls.

South Dakota’s law was seen as part of a broader attack on Planned Parenthood by social conservatives acting at the state and federal levels.

The non-profit organization is perhaps best known for abortion services, thanks to media campaigns launched by its religious conservative critics. However, the vast majority of PPFA’s activities focus on education, womens’ health, disease screenings and pregnancy prevention.

To this effect, PPFA says that each year it plays a role in preventing over 600,000 unwanted pregnancies, and only three percent of their patients request abortion services. By contrast, figures show PPFA is ten times more likely to be helping prevent an abortion than carrying one out.

But in an exclusive interview with Raw Story, Republican state Sen. Al Novstrup, the South Dakota bill’s primary sponsor, did not seem to know that. He even suggested that Planned Parenthood is akin to an abortion factory, ushering women in and putting them on a doctor’s table without so much as a consultation.

He also suggested they have a financial incentive in carrying out as many abortions as possible, which is demonstrably false as similar procedures are astronomically more expensive when carried out at private hospitals. Most women pay between $500-$900 for abortion services through PPFA.

The 72-hour waiting period aside, the law will also require women to consult with one of the “crisis pregnancy centers” around the state, which are mainly run by anti-abortion activists.

I’ll say it again, the best way to end abortion is to prevent a pregnancy from happening to begin with. We should be encouraging PP to reach out and educate more people on birth control instead of continuing to tie their hands.

23 Thoughts on “If you told a state legislator that Jesus walked on water, would he believe you, wait . . .

  1. Snooki Palin on March 23, 2011 at 7:13 am said:

    Just think of all the snow gates we could buy with the money estimated $4 Million were going to spend fighting this unconstitutional law in court.

  2. Helga on March 23, 2011 at 4:54 pm said:

    Think of the cuts in health care, education, you name it, that wouldn’t get cut.
    This is so disgusting. SD is getting lots of bad press, which they deserve. To include Leslie and Hunt.
    With luck this will have an impact on the tourism trade. They deserve it for being so friggin’ damn stupid. Signs should be posted when entering the state, women are considered worthless in this state.

  3. shane on March 23, 2011 at 5:24 pm said:

    We care about your child until birth. Then Fuck you.

    That should be the new State logo.

    Seriously.

  4. l3wis on March 23, 2011 at 5:51 pm said:

    Shane – I have always thought that. They cut education, tax food and make cuts to medicade but then force poor, single women in the state to have an unwanted baby. As Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols said once about their abortion song ‘Bodies’

    “What’s worse? Having an abortion or having a child no one gives a tiff about?”

  5. I agree with Shane and 13wis. Our legislators are just plain stupid(anyway a lot of them are.)

  6. concern liberal on March 23, 2011 at 9:24 pm said:

    These abortion restrictions, which our South Dakota legislature loves to embrace themselves in … are nothing more than 21st century “Jim Crow” laws designed
    to restrict a woman’s constitutional rights.

  7. shane on March 23, 2011 at 9:44 pm said:

    I am so angered about this. I am a Christian by definition, but I am also able to think clearly without being brainwashed. If you take the “morality” out of this argument WHICH SHOULD be done as it is plainly discriminatory. The state is forcing the morals of Midwestern white Christians, their beliefs and views on all people.
    The separation of church and state is indefensible by Jackety. HIPPA is indefensible by Jackety and we haven’t even gotten to Roe vs Wade. why spend 1.7-4 million dollars on this while telling the constituents of the state we are broke?
    The counselors aren’t trained.
    The counselors are volunteers.
    There is zero language for rape, incest or pregnancies threatening the health of a mother.
    When I wrote 2 of my reps from here in Yankton (Nick Moser and Jean Hunhoff) seperate letter they both responded with the same rhetoric.
    Moser: “When you get down to it, it’s really not a bad law.”
    Hunhoff: “It’s not that bad of a law.”
    Folks we are nothing more than a proving ground. We are the Indians in the desert with Nuclear Bombs being dropped on us because the rest of the US won’t give a fuck if we die from the fallout or not.
    If you can’t see that then you are blind.

    Shane

  8. shane on March 23, 2011 at 9:55 pm said:

    Separation of Church and State? Fail
    Roe v Wade? Fail
    HIPPA laws? Fail

    But…But…WHAT IF our little state slips up and allows this? What if our high court sides with our reactionary legislators?
    It’s called precedent. It’s all they want. Do you see it now?
    We are being used by Hunt, Unruh and the national hard right wing.
    This will never go away in this state until an across the board cleansing is done in Pierre.
    Remember your anger. I am begging you to remember your anger. Down here I am already plotting on how to oust Nick Moser and Jean Hunhoff. Do the same for Olson. Do the same for Hunt. Do the same for Wick. Do the same for the liar in Chief!!
    Wipe the board clean. Hold onto the anger. Write their lies down someplace and read them daily.

    We are being used…by the very people who we give the gift of representation.

    How does it feel?

    Shane

  9. anominous on March 23, 2011 at 10:26 pm said:

    I heard you can miscarry from getting a flu shot. Does that count?

  10. @Shane — LOVE the idea for the new state motto!

  11. Costner on March 24, 2011 at 8:37 am said:

    I’ll admit some of my comments below will be unpopular, but hear me out.

    I actually have less of an issue with trying to just ban abortion outright than I do with the chipping away at it that they are attempting to do, because this is essentially a slap in the face to the voters who shot down the ban twice already. Thus intead of listening to the voters, our elected geniuses feel they are smarter than those they represent and as such took it upon themselves to tell people what they should think.

    We do need to remember though, at least in today’s legal system abortion is treated as a medical procedure. So why is this procedure required to be postponed for 72 hours while getting a nose job or a tummy tuck or an emergency apendectomy or chemotherapy treatments or a hysterectomy don’t require any waiting period at all?

    The other issue I have with this is that it requires counseling by a biased party. If you want a waiting period that is one thing, but can you imagine telling someone in order to buy a gun they must wait 72 hours and meet with a gun control group before the purchase will be approved? The right would explode if you even suggested it!

    All of that aside, I can understand why our legislators do this type of thing. If they are really passionate about life and if they honestly beleive life does being at conception, then they have a duty to do whatever is within their power to protect it. Not everyone will agree, but if this results in even one less abortion being performed and saves one life, I can understand how they can justify their actions.

    Yes it is a hassle for those who just want an abortion. Yes they failed to include a waiver for the health and safety of the mother. Yes a potential legal challenge will be expensive… but if you boil it all down and look at it from the perspective of someone who truly and honestly believes that abortion ends a human life – can you really say that an expensive legal challenge isn’t worth it?

    I consider myself pretty level headed on this issue, and I consider myself pretty educated as far as medical and science goes, but even I cannot state one way or another when life begins. I can’t tell you if it begins at conception, or implantation, or during a specific week of development, or at birth. But what I can tell you is that if I’m going to make a mistake… if I’m going to be wrong about when life begins, I sure as hell want to error on the side of caution and do what I can to protect life. If that is an inconvenience to others who think it isn’t fair or it is too expensive or too much of a hassle then I guess I just have to say too bad, because in the scope of things that is a small price to pay.

    We are all human – none of us are infallible, but if we are honest about what we know and don’t know I think it allows for a lot more understanding of the other side.

  12. Angry Guy on March 24, 2011 at 12:24 pm said:

    If you don’t have a uterus, you shouldn’t be trying to impose morality on those that actually have one.

    Doug Stanhope said it best, “If you want to stop unwanted pregnancies, stop fuckin’ in the front hole. Sodomy saves lives, and abortion is green.”

  13. So Daugaard is pro life, does that give him the right to force his beliefs on the people that are pro choice? Hopefully this gets vetoed on Monday.

  14. scott on March 24, 2011 at 5:30 pm said:

    who will pay for the anti-abortion counseling? will leslie unruh do it for free, or is this a money making scheme for her?

  15. Ah, other Scott, that’s the dirty little secret behind all of this. Given that she’s the person most responsible for getting this passed, I don’t doubt that there’s some sort of financial rewards coming her way. At the very least, she’s another step closer to becoming an official state organization.

  16. rufusx on March 24, 2011 at 7:59 pm said:

    @ Costner. The problem with this approach is that “those who believe…… etc.” are NOT using their OWN $$$$ to promote and defend their beliefs. They are using ALL of the citizens’ of SD’s $$$. MOST of whom do NOT share their beliefs – and have TOLD them they do not – repeatedly.

    They want to challenge R v. W? (which they have the perfect right to do) – let them use their own resources, not everyone’s.

  17. l3wis on March 24, 2011 at 8:32 pm said:

    As I understand it, the Alpha Center DOES NOT charge for counseling services BUT if they see an uptick in business, this does not prevent them from getting more donors and grants, so in a round about way they could be making money from this. The Unruhs are interesting people. I’m glad that I am on speaking terms with them, but trust me, I will never understand their views on abortion and liberty, they don’t mesh.

  18. They don’t charge and they won’t be making any money, ya right and pigs fly.

  19. anominous on March 25, 2011 at 4:27 pm said:

    Great idea for the Alpha Center, since it’s no longer on the federal teat.

  20. I would like to know what financial impact this would have on the AC. I dont’ know.

  21. Oh I think they’ll be knocking on the doors of the legislature next year.

  22. Randall on March 26, 2011 at 8:13 pm said:

    But I don’t think it’s about saving a human life…

    Otherwise the same people would be pushing FOR health care reform rather than against it.

  23. Convoluted isn’t it?

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