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Indybay Feature

South Dakota Abortion Ban Draws Fiery Opposition from Native Americans

by Democracy Now (reposted)
Cecilia Fire Thunder, President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, recently made waves when she said a clinic on the Pine Ridge reservation could provide abortions if South Dakota’s new abortion ban goes into effect. The ban is set to go into effect July 1st. It would prohibit all abortions except to save the life of the mother – with no exceptions for rape or incest.
Under the law doctors will face up to five years in prison and a five thousand dollar fine for performing an abortion. Fire Thunder said earlier last week she would “personally establish a Planned Parenthood Clinic on my own land." She later said she would support a clinic being set up on any reservation in South Dakota.

According to Fire Thunder, the state law would not apply to Indian lands because of tribal sovereignty. In a press release Friday, Planned Parenthood expressed gratitude, but said they didn’t have the resources to open a reservation clinic. South Dakota is home to 8 tribes, and has one of the largest Native American populations of any state.

Currently only one clinic in the state performs abortions: the Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls at the extreme eastern part of the state. Doctors from Minnesota come to the clinic eight days a month. Native American women who live in the Western part of South Dakota must either travel more than four hundred miles to Sioux Falls or to an area of Nebraska, which lies almost 300 miles southeast of the Pine Ridge reservation.

The South Dakota Campaign For Healthy Families is aiming to collect enough signatures to bring the abortion question to a statewide referendum in November. Both pro-choice and anti-abortion groups claim they are ready to bring the issue to a vote.

Indian Country Today reported that if the law takes effect, Native American women will be impacted in greater numbers than any other group. According to national statistics, Native women are sexually assaulted at a rate 3.5 times higher than all other racial groups.

* Charon Asetoyer, founder and executive director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center, a grass-roots women’s health institute on the Yankton reservation in South Dakota.
* Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.

Related Links:

South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families
http://www.sdhealthyfamilies.org/

Indian Country Today: South Dakota's Abortion Ban has Sweeping Implications
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?feature=yes&id=1096412706

LISTEN ONLINE:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/28/1432205
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