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Indybay Feature

South Dakota bans all abortions. reject exceptions for Women' health

by BACORR
February 23, 2006
Ban on Most Abortions Advances in South Dakota
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

February 23, 2006
Ban on Most Abortions Advances in South Dakota
By MONICA DAVEY
PIERRE, S.D., Feb. 22 — Setting up South Dakota to become the first state in 14 years to start a direct legal attack on Roe v. Wade, lawmakers voted on Wednesday to outlaw nearly all abortions.

Across the country, abortion rights advocates reacted with outrage and dismay. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which runs the sole abortion clinic in South Dakota, said it was bracing to fight the move in court immediately, if the governor signs it.

"This represents a monumental step backward for personal privacy for women," Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, said.

Some opponents of abortion rights celebrated what they called a bold and brave move and lauded South Dakota for taking the lead in what they said they hoped would become a series of states to challenge Roe, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal.

The shifting makeup of the United States Supreme Court, the opponents said, offered a crucial opportunity, the first since at least 1992.

"It is a calculated risk, to be sure, but I believe it is a fight worth fighting," State Senator Brock L. Greenfield, a Clark Republican who is also director of the South Dakota Right to Life, told his colleagues in a hushed, packed chamber here.

After more than an hour of fierce and emotional debate, the senators rejected pleas to add exceptions for incest or rape or for the health of the pregnant woman and instead voted, 23 to 12, to outlaw all abortions, except those to save the woman's life.

They also rejected an effort to allow South Dakotans to decide the question in a referendum and an effort to prevent state tax dollars from financing what is certain to be a long and expensive court battle.

To be enacted, the bill, the most sweeping ban approved in any state in more than a decade, requires the signature of Gov. Mike Rounds, a Republican, who opposes abortion.

After overwhelmingly approving the measure this month, the House, too, has to vote on it again because the Senate slightly reworded it, although the intent of the bill was unchanged and the vote there seems unlikely to shift.

Mr. Rounds has said he will not comment on whether he will sign the measure until it reaches his desk. It is likely to arrive there by next week. He has 15 days to make a decision.

In an interview this week, Mr. Rounds said he had doubts about whether now was the time to make a "full frontal attack" on Roe v. Wade, as opposed to pressing for more laws that restrict abortions — setting limits, for instance, on their timing, methods or the requirements for parental notification.

Those restrictions, he said, have immediate effects on preventing abortions in South Dakota.

Mr. Rounds suggested that the two approaches might be possible simultaneously, particularly as a way to keep opponents of abortion rights from splintering over strategy questions. The key, he said, was in "saving lives while at the same time appeasing a segment that says you won't know unless you try the direct frontal attack."

Lawmakers opposed to abortion rights here — and advocates opposed to abortion rights around the country — have been split over timing questions. Some argue that the arrivals of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on the Supreme Court and speculation that Justice John Paul Stevens might soon retire, made now an ideal time to challenge Roe.

Others, however, have said a challenge should wait, for the arrival of additional justices who might be open to overturning Roe and for a shift in public opinion.

Nancy Northrup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the South Dakota action — similarly broad bans have recently been proposed in at least five other states — reminded her of a wave of state challenges to Roe in the years just before 1992, when the Supreme Court reaffirmed a core right to abortion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

"People have this sense that the court is in flux and is shifting so they want to try to test out how far they can go," Ms. Northrup said. "The answer will be in how the new justices vote."

On Wednesday in the Senate chamber, any division about strategy among opponents of abortion rights seemed to have vanished.

"This state has a right and a duty to step up to the plate," Senator William M. Napoli, Republican of Rapid City, told his colleagues before he voted for the ban.

It passed by a margin larger than many on both sides had predicted.

Opponents, meanwhile, questioned the purpose of such a law and the potential costs of the litigation, and they recited harrowing stories of women who had become pregnant, for example, after having been raped.

"What can we as a state possibly gain by passing a bill that is unconstitutional?" asked Senator Clarence Kooistra, Republican of Garretson, who added that he represented the "silent majority" of South Dakotans who would not approve outlawing abortion nearly entirely.

Leaders of a movement against abortion rights in this state said they had raised $1 million in donations to help pay for the legal fight ahead.

"I didn't want money to be the reason people wouldn't vote for this bill," said Leslee J. Unruh, founder and president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, who said she could not disclose the identities of those who had pledged money. "We're concerned with the 800 children aborted here every year."

After the vote, Kate Looby, state director of Planned Parenthood, left the statehouse promising to press Mr. Rounds to veto the bill.

"I'm very hopeful that he will be a voice of reason in this process and will choose the health and safety of the women of South Dakota over the political tool that this bill was designed to be," Ms. Looby said.

Failing that, she said, Planned Parenthood will sue, and it expects that a court will block the law from going into effect, while the case makes its way through the courts, a process that could take years.

"It scares me," Ms. Looby said, "to think that may in fact be the reality for my daughter's generation."



Copyright 2006The New York Times
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by Incredible.
"After more than an hour of fierce and emotional debate, the senators rejected pleas to add exceptions for ***incest*** or ***rape*** or for the ***health*** of the pregnant woman and instead voted, 23 to 12, to outlaw all abortions, except those to save the woman's life."
by ....and soon.
Decades of vote-Democrat abortion-defense strategy is about to taste its long term effectiveness....
Yeah, you're right. Malcolm had it right all along, didn't he?

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/malcolmxballot.htm
by intelligently and passionately
and women who have had abortions NEED TO COME OUT AND SPEAK OUT! We didn't commit murder and we aren't murderers.
Lots of women resist talking about their abortions because it was an emotionally complex process...ladies, our feminist ancestors - who may have had mixed feelings about abortion-fought to bring us rights that would allow us to live lives that we construct. A life like that entails making complex decisions. The presence of complexity is not an indicator that something's wrong. So speak up. And defend your decison to abort even as you investigate that decison. They are one and the same. They'll be coming for California, too (actually, they're already here)
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/01/1798168_comment.php#1798174

I don't know why people insist on having faith in this government. It hasn't responded to our interests in decades. Until and unless we react against it in a threatening way, it has little incentive to even pretend to. So clearly it should be cut loose in every way. Here's one extremely cool inspiration

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/7813/ccs-ithi.htm
by Important to remember
is already gone for women living in poverty and many women of color. Yet the takeback by the right wing is steady and relentless. Neither party can be relied on, we need to rely on ourselves and take back our rights by any means neccessary.
by True
I don't doubt our ability ot build systems and/or connect to systems that already exist, in terms of providing abortion services that are ...extra legal for lack of a better term. We have had those and still do- I myself have been the recipient of an abortion provided by an underground network and it was fabulous and a totally positive experience...it's worth remembering tho that we also need to know what to do when we get legally harrassed. this is what stumps me...I know it is a major reason that women fought so hard to legalize abortion. That, and the need to rein in extortinist doctors who like bootleggers in the 20's would charge exorbitant amounts of money for abortion that werent always safe or pain-managed. How do we prevent extortion and the development of a black market- and how do we prevent our skilled abortionists, who are part of the community from being thown into prison? If abortion becomes illegal, as oposed to just inaccessible, the answer to the latter question is, we don't.
by yesterday
And as usual, this ill begotten law affects poor and minority women the most. We need to get resources to help the women who need it now. Are there sympathetic local doctors? How far are the nearest clinics that can help? Can we set up and run an "underground railroad" to get women help? We'd need to fund it, too. Are there local activists that can prepare resource lists?


And as important- we need to stop this from spreading and taking over the rest of the country. This is the tip of the iceberg, folks- this is the begining of the end. This is everyones issue- whether you realize it now, or not. This is about our freedom, our privacy, our bodies.
by Get involved
2 great places to start. Get involved. Don't wait for someone else to do it or it will be too late. It's already too late for a lot of women.

http://www.whrc-access.org/

http://www.bacorr.org/

I also STRONGLY recommend you watch the videos at this link about what it's like to have no choice. You can download or watch streaming video:

http://www.thepowerofchoice.net/watch.html
by another video link
How the right wing is succeeding in making Mississippi the first "prochoice" state. Most poor women in Mississippi are already forced to go to another state if they need an abortion. Or they are sent to "Pregnancy Crisis Centers" which don't tell them the truth about their options. This strategy is moving to a state near you:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/clinic/view/
by Utopia Bold
It's time for womyn to **ignore** men's cruel medieval laws that would force them to carry a pregnancy from a rape or incest to term.

Menstrual extraction can be used safely at home at the first sign of a late period for up to 7 weeks. Abortion and birth control are our Goddess Given rights. No man has the right to force us to have children we dont want just to fuel their growing economy by the industrial mass production of consumeer/worker/soldier/breeder units.

Women are valued primarily for their uteruses, hence the patriarchal term re-production. We are seen as merely capital who yield interest (childen).

How to reclaim your body with Menstrual Extraction
Mandated pregnancy is male violence against women. Menstrual extraction (ME) removes menstrual blood (in cases of honeymoons and athletic events).It can also be used for low-risk early abortions (up to 7 weeks) without anesthetics and a decreased risk of infection.
ME is often an outpatient procedure performed at home by a trained medical professional. Most women said it’s less painful than standard abortions. The Del-Em, invented by Lorraine Rothman, is used. It can be assembled at home from common items. Other materials are easily obtainable through medical supply catalogues.
The cannula is inserted into the uterus through the undilated cervix. A syringe, with an automatic bypass valve prevents air from entering the uterus—which can be fatal. It creates the suction necessary to remove the menses. In a very few cases, a second extraction must be performed.
It should be performed by a medical professional. However, with proper training, most women can be taught to safely perform ME in Self-Help Groups.
Resources
http://www.geocities.com/sister_zeus/ A HUGE resource for reproductive rights. To find a Self-Help Group to safely perform ME, Sister Zeus suggests checking with midwives, feminist health centers, fertility counselors and local feminists. Finding a Self-Help Group is difficult since ME is barely legal. Groups may be found by word of mouth.
Sister Zeus will help you find or start a Self-Help Group in your area to learn safe ME. http://www.sisterzeus.com/StateList.html
Email: sister_zeus [at] geocities.com All information confidential. http://www.sisterzeus.com/self-helplist.html

A woman’s Book of Choices, Abortion, Menstrual Extraction RU-486 by Rebecca Chalker and Carol Downer. Herb information, (Misuse of herbs can be dangerous so ALWAYS consult a sympathetic midwife-herbalist), how to safely perform ME and how to make a Del-Em. Its now out of print but copies can still be ordered by book finders.
A New View of a Woman’s Body —Federation of Feminist Women’s health Centers. Difficult to find but full of high-quality information.
A Difficult Decision-A compassionate Book About Abortion by Joy Gardener. How to heal after abortion (grief, guilt and spiritual matters).
Planned Parenthood Ph: 1-800-230-PLAN http://www.plannedparenthood.org
http://www.io.com/~wwwomen/menstruation/extraction.html
Feminist Women’s Health Centers Ph: 509-575-6473 Ext.112 Fax: 509-575-0477 Email: info [at] fwhc.org
Abortion degrades life. It is an affront to humanity and it denies and ignores scientific advances. We know of life in the womb. We know it is killing. Abortion compounds social problems and lets inequality, sexism and male work and social structures go unchallenged. Abortion is not feminist. Abortion alongside capital punishment, war, WMD, poverty and the arms trade are desroyin hope for a just and peaceful world. Women and babies deserve better.
by Feminists
feminist.jpg
http://www.mccullagh.org/image/10d-14/feminist-majority-marchers.html

This, on the other hand... is probably what "PL" looks like.
by no it doesn't
Patriarchy degrades life.
by and options
Utopia Bold- I am all in favor of women taking their reproductive rights into our own hands. Its a great option, but it isn't enough.
Women with adequate resources- and information is a resource- will have other options, even if it means a trip out of state. Poor women, rural women, women of color will be the ones most affected by this. Not everyone has internet access.
There needs to be a medical option as well- the website http://www.sisterzeus.com/StateList.html says the natural procedures only work 40% of the time. This is about choice and having options.
by TW
"how do we prevent our skilled abortionists, who are part of the community from being thrown into prison?"

1) don't involve them. You don't need to. You can do the herbal/Vitamin C method on your own. This is daunting, I know, it requires being intrepid, but it's no more dangerous than other methods, and there's always the emergency room. Courage demands a certain amount of fatalism. Your fear is their leash.

Do research, absorb the knowledge in advance, enough so to gain confidence in yourself as an herbal self-healer. Revive your deep racial memory of what it is to know and use these mystical plants. This is not a chore, like "homework." Revive the ancient fabric fully by joining with other women in this project. It's a life- and mind-transforming experience, utterly beautiful. It feels so *right.* This is what medieval patriarchal monotheists called "witch-craft" and persecuted out of existence. They were malignant political operatives just like their counterparts today

This insane cryptotheocracy might even resort to banning OTC herbal abortifacients, but these plants are abundant in the wild, even in urban environments. With the exception of the woodland species, they're regarded as "weeds" and are effortless to cultivate. So now you turn to the cheapest, most clandestine method of all.

They can't stop you. I don't care what they do. All that's needed is to overcome the neurotic fears and pit-traps installed in your mind by social elites and their puppet institutions

2) The unfortunate truth is that people only seem to develop the will to defy fascist governments when they do things like locking up women for totally insane reasons. It's a bitter pill, but it's also an unavoidable trauma if this society to snap out of its baby hypnosis and do what needs to be done about this tentacled monster headquartered in Washington, DC. Again, courage demands a certain amount of fatalism.

All this may seem like you're "copping out" on activism, but I don't think that's true at all. By discarding for good the malarkey that this government is capable of having your interests at heart and by turning completely to EACH OTHER for this agency, you jam and destroy the elites' machinery of total social control. This slams a sword straight into the Hydra's heart. It's the most powerful activism of all. You look at the history of governments that have gotten truly desperate and finally buckled to the people's true interests, e.g. South Africa, and this is always what's gone on.

This ancient fabric of communal interdependence has been utterly destroyed in this society, made alien to us, precisely BECAUSE elite power has grown so enormous. They know our power, even if we don't
by an alternative
Still- natural methods only work 40% of the time. There needs to be a safe and legal alternative. Or simply a safe and accesible alternative. This is a rural area without a great deal of "resources"- medical area has been decentralized out of local communities. Information needs to get disseminated to the local community about all the options that are available. And we need to protect those who defy the law.
Equal legal and economic rights is just fine, but the rhetoric Utopia Bold is indulging in above goes WAAAAAAY beyond that.

I'm a man. I'm on your side. Sexism isn't just mysogyny, it has a mirror image called 'mysandry,' and all that hatefulness really does is aggravate the problem you claim to abhor. You hate me, I'm gonna fuckin hate you back. Yeah, that IS fair, in fact it's simple self-preservation. Meanwhile, men & women tribally hating each other, blacks & whites tribally hating each other, Jews & gentiles tribally hating each other... WHO DOES THIS REALLY SERVE?!

Divide and conquer, baby,

DEE-VIDE

AND

CONQUER!!!

They've done everything possible to inflame all of it. You do know Gloria Steinem was a CIA dupe/asset, don't you?

http://www.namebase.org/steinem.html

The monarchal elite consider all of us mindless livestock. It's a mentality that dates back to when wealth was based entirely on chattel slavery. When you snuffle along mindlessly after trails of crumbs they've laid down for you, as seems to have happened with Steinem and feminism as a whole, their feeling on this is vindicated and they have themselves a little chuckle.

They only killed Martin Luther King when he started planning to expand his advocacy to poor whites

They blew up Judi Barry because she was building a bridge to to the PNW logging industry's labor force

It's the unifiers that threaten them. Vitriolic dividers help them.

FIGHT THE REAL ENEMY.

Keep your eyes on the Hydra's heart
Where does this 40% figure come from?

Also, what's your thinking on this:

[Clandestine midwifery] may seem like you're "copping out" on activism, but I don't think that's true at all. By discarding for good the malarkey that this government is capable of having your interests at heart and by turning completely to EACH OTHER for this agency, you jam and destroy the elites' machinery of total social control. This slams a sword straight into the Hydra's heart. It's the most powerful activism of all. You look at the history of governments that have gotten truly desperate and finally buckled to the people's true interests, e.g. South Africa, and this is always what's gone on.
by iceberg
45%. We still need other options.
http://www.sisterzeus.com/Abortif.htm

"If you try herbs and they don't work, (and they didn't work for me) terminate the pregnancy with a clinical abortion. If the pregnancy is carried to term the child may have physical or mental birth defects. Be aware, herbs don't work for everyone, they seem to work about 45% of the time, if the herbs are started early enough - even in the best of circumstance... when everything is done "right".... herbs still have a strong chance of NOT working, so its vital to be committed to ending the pregnancy - even if it means a surgical abortion."

And we all know that what is happening in South Dakota is just a way of bringing this issue before our newly reconfigured supreme court. This issue, that has the potential to change life as we know it for years, merited 3 paragraphs in the San Francisco Chronicle, and merited nothing on the morning news.
by access
[Clandestine midwifery] may seem like you're "copping out" on activism, but I don't think that's true at all. By discarding for good the malarkey that this government is capable of having your interests at heart and by turning completely to EACH OTHER for this agency, you jam and destroy the elites' machinery of total social control. This slams a sword straight into the Hydra's heart. It's the most powerful activism of all. You look at the history of governments that have gotten truly desperate and finally buckled to the people's true interests, e.g. South Africa, and this is always what's gone on.

This assumes community. This assumes access to information and resources. These are options that may not exist for a scared 16 year old. We need a support system that will reach scared 16 year olds. They aren't going to get help from their schools, their churches or their peers. Clandestine widwifery will reach those with the resources to look for it- internet access, transportaion, funding to reach support....but I worry about the young, the rural poor...
by I have been supported by men.
If you feel someone is male bashing could you find a different tonal quality to your e-mails? Just tell them that how the communication is making you feel. There was a lot of energy in your response, and I'm already feeling raw. I've seen your postings at other sites, and always sense the same high energy when you feel youre being slighted. Please take the anger out and the defensiveness out. It's easier to hear you. I agree that men can be and will be allies.
And as far as the herbal route goes- I've used them and havent had any luck. The issue with them is that they can kill the fetus but not expell it. Most midwives I'v taked to don't like them, for those reasons. theres a reason abortion needs to stay legal. I'm not ready or willing to revert to underground systems soley. I agree that entertaining these notions doesnt' mean were abandoning grasroots organizing- we need to do it all
What we really need of course, is to be able toturn to those who equate abortion with war and come up with a rebuttal. On the raging grannies article in Indybay, you can see a women holding a choose life sign. The seamless grament types have been really good at encouraging traditional anti war, anti death penalty folks to condemn abortion too, and yet it seems to me that we don't know what to say to them and that we are also not a driven to proactively say" abortion isnt murder, it isnt an act of war", etc...just today in the SF Chronicle, theres a letter from a death penalty opponent who uses the issue of Michael Morales to condemn abortion.
by also raw
I'm sorry- TW uses the language of domination, of assault and sexual humiliation and violence in dealing with women he doesn't agree with. His language betrays his thought processes- women should never trust or rely on someone like that.

I also feel raw. I also feel we've betrayed the next generation by our complacency, in thinking that the fight was already won.

When I was 13 I was assaulted by 3 men. If I was told at that point in my life that my only option was to grow and nuture the living embodiment of my pain, I would have resorted to suicide. It would have been the only way to regain any sense of control over my own body. To have a blanket ban on abortion is an obscene travesty. We can't let this happen.



by whose body is it, anyway?
Any ban is a travesty. If women don't own their own bodies, nobody does.
by negotiating tactic?
Any ban. I stand corrected.

I wonder if they are using this as a negotiating tactic- to start with a reprehensible all- inclusive ban...then they gradually will "allow" themselves to be talked into a "compromise" position.
by BACORR
Guys- I've been reading these comments with love and sorrow and also a question. What do you want to do? I organize with Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights and getting people to planning meetings has been like pulling teeth. There is so much we could to show visibility and to start reigniting the "movement" but...you have to show up, and commit yourself to a plan of action. March is International Womens Month. We have posters that we need to get out. We have a radio show were tring to get content for. We are organzing a showing of reproductive rights films at the Red Vic. And we NEED YOU. Theres are people working to enliven and awaken consciouness of this issue.
Our sisters on the "other side" are empowered to work on this issue. To go to meetings. To organize. To respond.
Are you?
There's so much to be done.
What do you want to do? That's the only question
bacorrinfo [at] riseup.net
by NR
Can someone exlpain to me just how a state legislature can get away with deliberately violating the constitution? Last time I checked Abortion was a legal national medical proedure.
by and they know it
and they want to be hauled before a now-friendly to anti-choice court...they want to force a confrontation so that the entire Roe v Wade ruling is looked at
by n5667
...And not a federal law, raises some interesting issues along those lines.

However, there is no right to have an abortion - the right will depend upon whose in the supreme court at any given time...

...Which really just goes to show that the federal government should have the bear minimum power and function - most duties should be handled by state and local governments (as it originally was).
by On the agenda
from sfgate:
"It's a sad state of affairs that we have only one choice (for abortion) right now," said Charon Asetoyer of the Native American Women's Health Care Education Resource Center in Lake Andes. "But if you have to go out of state, the cost of making that trip will be prohibitive."

If a rape victim becomes pregnant and bears a child, ***the rapist could have the same parental rights as the mother***, said Krista Heeren-Graber, executive director of the South Dakota Network Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault.

"The idea the rapist could be in the child's life ... makes the woman very, very fearful. Sometimes they need to have choice," Heeren-Graber said.
by NR
Just to correct a previous statement of mind, The right to an abortion is not in the constitution. What I meant to say was that the Supreme Court had already ruled in favor of allowing abortion as a medical procedure.


Ah, its been awhile since my I had an American government class. Forgive my brief ignorance.
by Utopia bold (elained [at] got.net)
Re read my post. I said its time for women to ignore men's medieval laws.
I guess I struck a nerve by supporting a woman's right to take back her body.
by hope is the thing with feathers
Did you ever read "The Red Tent" ? We've gotten so far away from what was instinctive and natural and right- and that includes supporting each other. Over the years, women's bodies have become a commodity, and what we've discussed on this thread is a good way to reclaim them for ourselves. I'd been growing despondent over the events in South Dakota, but this does give me hope.

I think the idea of training women in ME, the same way some of us are trained in CPR or first aid is beautiful. I've begun to contact people locally- I'd personally feel much more comfortable learning this from a medical professional.

I think we need to continue to support , financially and otherwise, those fighting for legal ,surgical options... but we need to recognize that our nation is regressing and we need to gather together all available resources, maybe for the long haul.

The ideas expressed on this thread give us hope, and thats a great start.
by n5667
...And perhaps to play devil's advocate...

But... in the case of an accidental pregnancy between two adults, why should the women have the sole decision making powers in regards to abortion?

Rape or health I can certainly understand - but she had sex knowing full well the risk of pregnancy was there.

As an aside, someone called it a man's law, but are there any statistics that show women are much more likely to support abortion than men?..
by About who has the right
The act of reproduction, which is a joint production to begin with, does "land' in the woman's body. It's for that reason that I think the woman has the final say. Couples should be as constructively communicative with each other as possible so that turf struggles like this don't arise at crisis points.

It's worth noting that men are often seen as the initiators of abortions and so direct the outcome of the pregnancy quite often. This is a plaint voiced by anti choice marchers. I must say, as a woman whose had an abortion, i did experience that- the sense that even if I had wanted to keep the baby, that my desire was not enough to forge consensus...and that he had helped with the pregnancy meant nothing to him...and that the geographical divide between his body and the location of the pregnancy (my body) was to him proof that it had "nothing to do with him". That, by the way, is a quote, made from a law degree-carrying San Franciscan, who has scads of education, and a progressive pedigree as long as your arm- in other words, someone who "should" have known. It's a jungle out there...

Even though it's often said by some men (not all) that they are locked out of decison making vis a vis an abortion, in reality it is not a hard and fast rule. You'll talk to as many women who wanted to keep it, and men who did not and got "their way" as men whose wishes to proceed with the preganancy were blocked.
I do think women should have the final call.

And yes, there are a LOT of women who are ambivalent or hostile to the idea of abortion. Ambivalence is fine. Hostility to LEGAL abortion- the prohibition of a now legal tactic in order to discourage behaviors- is not fine and is, well, nothing more than a prohibitionist stance. it does nothing to prepare women to greet the onset of her fertility with clarity, mindfullness and a strong sense of self.
If abortion is made illegal- or extra legal- , behaviors that contribute to unwanted pregnancy will not vanish.

I'm using the term "behaviors" advisedly and also with some self knowlege. I have had more than one abortion, and while some of them were lapses in communication, at least two- the one I described above- were because I didn't know how to take care of myself at all. Understand why that was so is the task at hand, not bemoaning a procedure that lessened what would have been unbearable pressure and would have kept me from growing- mind, spirit and soul- a comprehension that allows me to make sense of my life.
by in response to N5
Re : men who take the opportunity to disengage instead of engage when the woman gets pregnant..I think the term "pro-choice" to some sounds like an excuse to disengage, as my example of the would-be progressive shows. I, of course, never thought that...but the thing you hear both men and women say, is "it's her choice and it's none of my business", which to some extent is true, but ishouldnt be used as an excuse to pull away/disengage. I think pro-life/pro-birth Catholics who do engage with other social movements- anti death penalty work- hear this as a icky isolationism...a lack of connection...hm...Being pro choice or pro reproductive rights doesn't mean a default stance of leaving the person entirely to their own devices...hm. I'm not saying this too well, but...
by another option?
There is another alternative that is potentially 80% effective in inducing early term abortions (before the 8th week), and is widely available

Misoprostol (Cytotec) has been extensively studied in reproductive health, and is widely recommended for the treatment of missed and incomplete miscarriages.
by is used like Pitocin
which brings on contractions and expells fetal tissue...however, it has some well documented side effects, which unsupervised can really f**k you up.
Undergroud/extra-legal medical systems can be really empowering, but are so vulnerbale to legal harrssment. Access becomes an issue there as well.
We need to insist on legal rights. We can build alternative systems as well, but I don't think I'll ever regard them as real substitutes. I want it all: no harrassment, access, and the ighest quality care and supervision possible.
If South Dakot bans abortion, how many of us (the anonymous us) will be psyched to turn out to a protest? We need to show a response.
by Oscar G.
Frankly, as long as those who want abortions do not deal with the major complaint of its opponents, that is the murder of a child, the pro-abortion individuals will continue to lose ground in this country.

I have yet to hear someone actively explain why it is not murder. I hear lots of nonsense about patriarchy and hating women, but no one talks about a child that does not have the chance at life. Truly stunning.
by And it isnt murder
I have had an abortion. I aborted fetal tissue. Murder is an act that is perpetuated upon a rights bearing person-in order to be a rights bearing person, you have to have significant mutuality or the opportunity or the CAPACITY for some form of independant(physicalized ,social, all those things) intercourse with the world. Six weeks worth of fetal tissue don't have it.
What the pro choice movement insists on is specificity. A pregnant women is an event and a phenomena that demands that.
by Oscar G.
I completely disagree as to it just being “tissue.” Thankfully, more and more Americans are starting to see that it is life, even if you think it is too small and insignificant to have any importance.
by And as more women who have had abortions
start talking, americans will see that abortion occupies its own catagoriy. And its actaully you who are callign it small and insignificant, Mr. Oscar. That isnt my terminolgy,nor does it correspond with my experience.
by And as more women who have had abortions
start talking, americans will see that abortion occupies its own catagory. And it's you who are calling the fetal tissue- I think it's correctly a fetus at 6 weeks- small and insignificant, Mr. Oscar. That isnt my terminolgy, nor does it correspond with my experience.
by And as more women who have had abortions
start talking, americans will see that abortion occupies its own catagory. And it's you who are calling the fetal tissue- I think it's correctly a fetus at 6 weeks- small and insignificant, Mr. Oscar. That isn't my terminology, nor does it correspond with my experience.
by Didnt mean to post that three times
That was an accident. I wasnt sure if it was going through.
by Oscar G.
I don’t know how you can call an unborn child “tissue,” and then claim that it is I who is treating it as insignificant. I understand your deep feelings in favor of it, but I personally can not find a way to accept something that I feel is murder.
by You can't get pregnant
It isn't somethig you'll ever experience. Sorry. If you are looking for a way to develop an ethic regarding fertilty, start with your own body, and look at the prevention first campaigns that are popping up everywhere. NARAL is running one.
I have to take the evidence my mind, spirt and body present me with, which tell me that Abortion isn't murder and that "life" as anti choice activists define it is simply too broad and sweeping a construct that deliberately witholds evidence from me and others like me(a half a million women every year) that the experience of the abortion, in all its complexity is born by me.
You don't own the term life.
by It IS you
...calling my fetal tissue insignificant. Look again at what you posted. What does it mean that you actually tagged it as such, and not me? It's interesting.
by Utopia Bold
Its time for women to ignore mens laws mandating pregnancy. Its time for women to educate themselves on using herbs and Menstrual Extraction to safely and inexpensively control their reproduction at home.

Women are adults and are not to be put in the childish position of having to beg for the right to refuse pregnancy.

Google "Menstrual Extraction" and read A Womans Book of Choices and also google "Sister Zeus."

Nurses and other medical professionals can teach women how to SAFELY do Menstrual Extraction with strict medical standards of hygene.

Using a Del-Em Kit (google Del-Em) which can be assembled at home from cheap common objects -like plastic tubing and a pickle jar- (and by ordering a few medical items such as a cannula and a one way bypass valve from medical supply houses,) the menses are *gently* suctioned out of the uterus by the woman using a hand pump-who is assisted by other women. A fertilized egg can be SAFELY removed up to seven weeks.
ME should be used at the first sign of a missed period. Athletes used to use ME before competing. Campers and honeymooners also used it to avoid inconvenent periods.

When you learn about Menstrual Extraction, send the info to three women. If three women send the info to three other women, ONE BILLION women would be reached after only 19 multiples of three! 3x3=9, 9x3=27 etc Do the Math!
by It was empowering
It was also very very painful. I know there's women out there that would have a hard time with it. We need all our options intact. I agree with you about self sufficiency, but I'm not ready to tag ME as the sole solution.
by Another method
first heard about on another indybay post:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/03/1808452.php

Basically how to perform your own abortion. I know, sounds scary. Let's work to keep it legal, but this is important to be aware of.
by Good for her
This is great. i agree. Lets keep it legal, lets expand our own options.
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