“When Governor Mike Rounds signed HB 1215 into law it effectively banned all abortions in the state with the exception that it did allow saving the mother’s life. There were, however, no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. His actions, and the comments of State Senators like Bill Napoli of Rapid City, SD, set of a maelstrom of protests within the state.
Napoli suggested that if it was a case of “simple rape,” there should be no thoughts of ending a pregnancy. Letters by the hundreds appeared in local newspapers, mostly written by women, challenging Napoli’s description of rape as “simple.” He has yet to explain satisfactorily what he meant by “simple rape.”
I just can’t put it more clearly than the following statement by one of my rural sisters. Shame on you Bill Napoli!
“As a rape victim at the age of 16 I am highly incensed by the term ’simple’ rape. No woman that has ever gone through that escapes without not only physical scars but also emotional ones that last years….perhaps forever. And we all know rape is not about sex but power which brings us yet again to the the patriarchy that continues to dominate in our culture.”
As rural feminists it is no surprise that the recent abortion ban legislation in South Dakota has been a topic of discussion within our community. Heck, forget feminist. As women this legislation is of great interest. It was certainly no surprise that the following two news article links were sent to our list mates.
http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/03/25/news/top/news01.txt
http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2006/03/25/news/top/news02.txt
While reading the articles, I found myself in absolute disbelief with the following statements by Representive Roger Hunt.
The main sponsor of HB1215, state Rep. Roger Hunt, R-Brandon, on Friday rejected the notion that the ban is outside the mainstream of South Dakota values. The bill was overwhelmingly approved by publicly elected legislators and signed by a publicly elected governor, Hunt said.
“On the basis of the fact that all of these elected officials have considered this legislation and supported this legislation, I think it’s a little strained to say this legislation is too far out,” Hunt said.
Hunt said it is a distortion of the bill to say it doesn’t leave rape victims any other option but to give birth to the children of their rapists. The bill allows women to use emergency contraception from the time of intercourse to the time a pregnancy could be detected, which Hunt said could be five to nine days.
The only piece of sanity I can find in the above statements is yes indeed, it was the great
“elected” officials who brought this legislation to the table. Are they so arrogant as to believe that they will forever remain elected officials with this type of garbage legislation? My dear South Dakota sisters —
These people need to go!
I applaud the efforts of the members of the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families to bring the issue to the voters of South Dakota. I pray for their success. How long will it be before these elected officials disregard the needs and desires of South Dakota families again? You hired them through your vote (or lack of vote). You can fire them just as easily. Here’s a thought for you.
If they did not vote NO — They need to GO!
In the words of Kathleen Norris, “it is the aim of contemplative living. . . that you learn to recognize a blessing when you see one.” Sometimes I find it hard to live here, where my politics and perspective are so different from most of the people I’m around. The rest of the time, it’s a blessing to me to live in the country and be able to see the sun rise and set, to have a place to go away from the world at the end of the day.
It will be a good exercise for me to come here to this place in Towanda (our online town) to practice counting my blessings, to remember why I am where I am. I’ll start with words from Norris, who was writing about living in Lemmon, South Dakota, where one of our dearest Towanda friends also lives.
I must live here because of the quiet. On my dawn walk last Saturday the world was so still that I began to wonder if the nearly full moon, still high in the western sky, was about to speak.
And more from Norris:
I live here because, after being out in what is purported to be “the real world,” . . . . this is a good place to cool off. . . This is my real world, where life proceeds at its own healthy pace, where I can revel in the luxury of paying more attention to sunrise and sunset than to clock time.
A woman at work told me a member of her congregation died and she would be going to the funeral. “I’m not worried about him - he was a good Christian,” she said. So what does that mean? That anyone who doesn’t fit her (narrow) definition of Christianity is in peril?
Her church is a little non-denominational (denatured?) group in a town with a population of under 300. The day after a controversial execution in the state of California, we were all having lunch together at the bar and grill when one of us said he’d stayed up all night waiting to see what happened with the execution. “I don’t believe in the death penalty,” I said. The woman from the little town looked disapproving, shook her head, looked down into her lap, and said, “I do!”
She looks down on those of us who don’t share her views. She is pro-death penalty. She is pro-war. She supports the radical right wing politicians that are elected from our area, who not only are not pro-choice, but who do not even support a woman’s right to birth control. And when we die, she will worry about our souls?
I don’t recognize the Christianity in that.
Once I expressed something about forgiveness, and a woman asked me, with some excitement, “Oh, are you a Christian?” I knew she must have meant that undifferentiated fundamentalist mass that is not associated with any of the major Christian religious groups - Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc. And I was really pretty darned sure she wasn’t talking about Catholics, as many of the fundamentalists I know are anti-Catholic. I don’t think I ever answered. Where does one even find a common ground for a dialog on these things?
What about feeding the hungry? Caring for the sick? Yes, I know the woman I work with and other like her probably care for individuals they know of who are in need. But what about the social and governmental policies? We know it isn’t because of a reluctance to combine religion and politics.
Look at the United States, a country that is always God-blessing itself and compulsively stuffing Bibles in hotel drawers. In this country, Christianity has been largely co-opted as ideological cover for a mean-spirited right wing that is zealously transferring wealth from the bottom to the top while exporting death in a string of senseless wars. Modern Caesars have nothing to fear from this crowd of “Christians.” If Jesus were like them, he could have died merrily in his bed at a ripe old age. Quote from the From the Co-opted Gospel.
AOL recently announced what they are calling a “modest increase” in the price of their dial-up access fees. While I agree that businesses have the right to charge what they feel their particular market will support, I think AOL is really missing the boat on this one. The $2.00 per month increase doesn’t seem like much and probably will not break the bank of most subscribers. There is a larger issue than money with this price increase. Dial-up customers will pay the same price for AOL internet access as customers who use broadband access.
AOL makes no bones about the fact that it is trying to encourage people to upgrade to faster service so they can better view the bandwidth-intensive content on the AOL site. “The hope is that we’ll be encouraging users to upgrade to broadband because a majority of them will be able to get high-speed connections,” said AOL spokeswoman Anne Bentley.
I invite Ms. Bentley to show me where in rural America a majority of subscribers will be able to get high-speed access. The reality is that the option simply does not exist in a vast majority of rural areas. Most rural subscribers do not have access to DSL as the telephone companies that serve these communities continue to state that lack of population density does not warrant the expense of installing the lines. Cable access is unavailable for the same reason. Satellite access is bringing relief in some areas but it certainly will not provide access at the same price structure. In most cases, such access will cost two to three times higher than the $25.90 AOL is charging for service. If AOL truly wants to encourage increased broadband use among their subscribers, I would suggest they use their considerable influence to persuade telephone companies to provide equal service to all their customers.