The South Dakota Democratic Party’s new communications director, Krista Burns, is working to prove her bona fides to the party. My inbox has been simply bursting with party press releases. Right now, the SDDP website has more new content than the SDGOP website, which still lists the gross September 8 Trump rally in Rapid City as an upcoming event. Keep working, Krista B!
Unlike the SDGOP spin blog, I don’t feel the need to print everything the party publishes verbatim and sine commentario (at the moment, eight of Pat Powers’s last ten posts are straight press releases from party poobahs). If you want to read the party line straight from the party, why not go straight to the party’s website?
But we should note that amidst inexplicable and unconscionable sniping from Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union against the pending petition to codify Roe v. Wade in South Dakota’s Constitution, the South Dakota Democratic Party, which formally declared its support for the codifying Roe v. Wade at its 2022 convention, is helpfully reminding us that Democrats should work together to support women’s right to control their reproductivity:
The South Dakota Democratic Party Vice Chair Jessica Meyers released the following statement on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case on the abortion pill mifepristone:
“The Supreme Court’s announcement shows us just how much is at stake in every election. Limiting access to this safe medication would impact all of us, and it’s only possible because of the reversal of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“While Republicans try to roll back reproductive freedoms, Democrats are fighting to protect them. Abortion is healthcare and the South Dakota Democratic Party stands for women’s rights to make their own medical decisions” [link added; South Dakota Democratic Party, press release via Twitter, 2023.12.13].
At the same time, Senator Liz Larson (D-10/Sioux Falls) is telling her supporters that she and her District 10 colleagues are actively supporting women’s rights:
I am passionate about ensuring that South Dakota remains an exceptional place to live, work, go to school, raise a family, or start a business. Together with Representatives Erin Healy and Kameron Nelson, I am committed to working collaboratively as part of the District 10 team, representing the diverse voices in our community and spearheading efforts to strengthen and preserve our democracy. We will actively monitor and participate in local initiatives aimed at reinstating Roe v. Wade, providing free school lunches to students in need, investing in our infrastructure and workforce, and advocating for vulnerable communities throughout our state. We will also push against attempts to chip away at Medicaid expansion, voting rights, workers’ rights and the environment [Senator Liz Larson, campaign fundraising email, 2023.12.13].
Yes, if you are a Democrat, and if you support women’s equality, you should most definitely be supporting the local initiative aimed at reinstating Roe v. Wade, the only initiative available that can restore South Dakotans’ reproductive rights as soon as possible.
I have suspended my admittedly paltry donations to Planned Parenthood and ACLU. Their snubbing of Dakotans for Health is incomprehensible. Instead I shall make a significant (for me) donation to Dakotans for Health.
John Dale is touting the Great Replacement Hypothesis as he trolls Cory relentlessly on twitter.
This is a pivotal issue for the Democrats and they should not find small print to argue about. We certainly don’t need to pick an internal fight at this time. Support of Dakotans for Health is the best option. Actually we should reemphasize the importance of the nascent Equal Rights Amendment. Pas the Amendment, and the politics will be taken care of and the Trump judges will have to find some common ground with the 14th Amendment.
I don’t understand why any pro-choice person would not support this initiative. Abortion is 100% illegal in SD right now, even if a woman or a girl is impregnated by a rapist or by a family member–how is the Dakotans for Health initiative not a substantial advance in public policy? And, if the groups opposing the Dakotans for Health have a better plan, then why aren’t they attempting to put their better version on the ballot? I hope someone answers this questison because it truly makes no sense to me.
The US religious Taliban will have their way. As Barry Goldwater shared, they will never compromise.
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”
James Carville has the take on Dusty Johnson’s Johnson, Speaker of the House – the Venom of Our Age.
As hard-right movements rattle or control European governments, the words of George Steiner animate James Carville.
“Nationalism is the venom of our age,” Steiner wrote in his 1965 essay on the Holocaust, A Kind of Survivor. “It has brought Europe to the edge of ruin.”
Those words prompted Carville, the centrist Democratic political consultant who guided Bill Clinton to the presidency, to say: “The greatest distinction in the world is between patriotism, which is positive – a piece of ground as an idea – and nationalism, which is tribal, exclusionary and, yeah, poisonous.”
Carville zeroed in on the US variant: white Christian nationalism, particularly as embodied by Mike Johnson, his fellow Louisianan and the US House speaker.
“Johnson has no skill, no background, no majority to speak of,”
“What Johnson does represent is a level of breathtaking hypocrisy,” Carville said. “His anti-homosexuality and young earthism are hypocrisy on steroids.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/16/james-carville-mike-johnson-christian-nationalism
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/order-blocking-enforcement-ohio-abortion-ban-stands-after-105715530
Abortion rights gets big boost in Ohio courts.
In other news, state of iowa wants to sell 100 acres of land and some buildings at former Mental Health Institute in my old hometown of Cherokee. Rumour has it the state needs the money, even though they are pushing to eliminate state income taxes. Typical magats. Cut taxes and revenues magically increase, although no sane person has ever seen increased revenues.
Abortion in South Dakota is NOT 100% banned. Get your facts right. The laws works in the best manner to ensure that the Women is provided the proper medical treatment as she needs. The LEFT is lieing to people in order to deceive people. The way the law works is the WOMAN is allowed to consent to, and request an Aboriton, at that point, the Licensed Healthcare Provider is to provide the woman counseling, blood testing, and provide for a diagnosis. IF it is declared that the woman or the baby is suffering from a medical emergency, where the life of the mother, or of the unborn baby is at risk, then an abortion can be procured. IF the procedural, legal restrictions are NOT carried out in specific order prior to the abortion, the Healthcare provider(s) are then penalized, sanctioned, to worse, imprisoned. The WOMAN based on her right to consent to such abortion is NEVER found guilty, nor in violation of any such law. Although, fraud could be entered into the matter if she conspired to deceive someone, or the health provider in any way that could be construed as fraud.
GET your facts right, and leave your left, marxist, b.s outside of South Dakota. WE will protect LIFE of both the woman and the unborn here.
so much for the “long game” OF THE RIGHT packing SCOTUS:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24190168-stearns-note-to-thomas-2000
When a mythomaniac demands others to get their facts right, Mr. T pities the lying fool. I don’t. It is a delicate matter; dealing with the mentally unwell. Until, it just gets old and you want to run the hateful moron off, which is hard. It is almost impossible to humiliate someone so ignorant of their own suckery. They just love to suck up whatever advantage-taking grifters (trump and counterfeit kristians) spew out. They have no clue they are being used and played like tools. Just stop.
At this point, I blame Cory. He’s seen the dude’s racist and misogynistic comments (I thought comparing black people to apes was especially fun!) and does nothing about it. I can only assume it’s driving his views up and that is why he remains completely silent about it while Mike runs roughshod.
I’m horribly obnoxious so Cory banned me for a couple years but I’m still obnoxious. Zitterich is a glaring example of what the SDGOP has become so just blow him off until Cory hears enough from all of us.
Abortion Policies in South Dakota
MOST RESTRICTIVE
States have constructed a web of abortion laws and regulations that restrict or support whether, when and under what circumstances providers can offer abortion care and a pregnant individual can obtain an abortion. While a state’s abortion policies affect all people seeking care, they are particularly significant for individuals who find it difficult or outright impossible to access care when forced to navigate around abortion bans and restrictions. This includes people already facing barriers due to factors like their race, income, age or gender identity.
Abortion policies currently in effect in South Dakota include the following:
Abortion is completely banned with very limited exceptions
Patients forced to make two trips—one for in-person counseling and another at least 72 hours later for the abortion
State Medicaid coverage of abortion care is banned except in very limited circumstances
Medication abortion must be provided in person because state bans the use of telehealth or mailing pills or requires in-person visit
Parental consent or notice is required for a minor’s abortion
Only physicians can provide abortions and not other qualified health care professionals
Unnecessary regulations are in force and designed to shutter abortion clinics without basis in medical standards
From the Guttmacher Institute
WE will protect LIFE of both the woman and the unborn here.
Zitocrite finally speaks a truth. After a fetus is actually a functioning human being, it gets no help from Zitocrites in South Duhkota.
Mr. Zitterich, grudznick’s close personal friend Lar, banned for some odd years for being obnoxious, remains both grudznick’s close personal friend, and obnoxious.
Mr. Zitterich, you are no Lar. Try harder.
When discussing SD abortion laws one should not overlook the state’s murder statutes which subject anyone involved in any aspect of procuring an abortion (except the pregnant woman) to the death sentence.
bearcreekbat is spot on! It’s happening in Ohio with similar statutes.
A woman who miscarried is being charged with abuse of a corpse.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/19/us/brittany-watts-miscarriage-criminal-charge/index.html
The christian Taliban is unleashed.
“An Ohio woman who had sought treatment at a hospital before suffering a miscarriage and passing her nonviable fetus in her bathroom now faces a criminal charge, her attorney told CNN.
Brittany Watts, 33, of Warren, has been charged with felony abuse of a corpse, Trumbull County court records show.
“Ms. Watts suffered a tragic and dangerous miscarriage that jeopardized her own life. Rather than focusing on healing physically and emotionally, she was arrested and charged with a felony,” her attorney, Traci Timko, told CNN in an email.
“Ms. Watts’ case is pending before the Trumbull County Grand Jury. I have advised her not to speak publicly until the criminal matter has resolved.”
Though a coroner’s office report said the fetus was not viable and had died in the womb, Watts’ case highlights the extent to which prosecutors can charge a woman whose pregnancy has ended – whether by abortion or miscarriage.”
[I blame everyone who engages him in his off-topic rants.]
[Mike Zitterich is not adding value to the conversation or boosting stats.]
A Black woman in Ohio being charged? Who would’ve thunk it that white christofascists would do such a thing.
The idea that a woman is being prosecuted for having a miscarriage on a toilet is sheer barbarism.
(1) 10-20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriages.
(2) Most of those miscarriages happen in the bathroom, on the toilet, because when a woman starts cramping, that’s where she goes.
(3) Most of those miscarriages are indeed flushed down the toilet, because what the **** else is a woman supposed to do? Get a bucket a scoop it out and take it somewhere? Where? The police station? The hospital?
Just once, I would like to see decisions about women’s reproductive systems actually made by female doctors and not a bunch of old male legislators.
BTW, am I the only one noticing the incredible hilarity of Nikki Haley saying about Colorado banning Trump from the ballot, “We don’t need to have judges making these decisions, we need voters to make these decisions.” Hey, Nikki! And the entire GOP! How about having that same faith in the voters re abortion?
(Simple answer: 80% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest, and the life / health of the mother, but certain parties in this country want something more… absolute. So nice to know that women like Ms. Cox in Texas are supposed to be proud to be walking caskets.)