I wrote this part before the November 7th, 2006 election:
I was born in South Dakota. I lived there until it was time to go to college in 1988 which is when I came to Minnesota which is where I have lived ever since. As a former South Dakota resident and someone that still has significant family there, I have something to say about all these laws.

The situation regarding a woman’s right to choose in South Dakota was fairly abysmal before the recent law. No resident doctors performed abortions in the state, doctors from Minnesota had to fly in.

Now, there is a law. According to State Senator Bill Napoli, “A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.”

Wait. Did I wake up somewhere else? I thought I lived in America. I thought we had this thing called freedom. I thought we had a separation of church and state. This is about a small minority of very dedicated (one might call them zealots) individuals that want to be involved in every woman’s life. In intimate, painful, personal, and frightening decisions. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want these people making rules for me.

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I am writing this part today, November 14th, 2006

One week after the election. It turns out I still do live in a democracy. WOOHOO. And the best part is that the people of South Dakota actually got to vote on that law. And guess what…..

They overturned that law.

Now the situation is still abysmal. You can’t get this done anywhere except Sioux Falls. All the people interviewed that were in support of keeping the law pointed this out in their sour grapes mode.

But the people have spoken.