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Monday, October 23, 2006

a shout out to dena gleason

it gives my heart great joy to hear of people like ms gleason. DOING something. i'll say it one more time (because i've been accused of ALL sorts of things). i am NOT pro-abortion. i AM pro-choice. i am PRO sex education i am PRO contraceptives. i am PRO knowledge (knowledge is power). ABSTINENCE DOES NOT WORK (another story on that subject later. it will take a while to write and i've been putting it off for quite a while).

women, do NOT give up your rights. your body YOUR choice(s)

South Dakota's Abortion Ban Showdown

By Rebecca Clarren, Ms. Magazine Posted on October 20, 2006, Printed on October 22, 2006http://www.alternet.org/story/43139/
Sioux Falls, SD -- College student Dena Gleason, 24, squints at the address on the blue wooden home with the two-car garage, then strolls resolutely toward the front door, armed with an open smile and a clipboard. The smell of freshly mowed grass clings to the thick evening air of midsummer, and the American flag on the porch droops in the heat.
This neighborhood, with its manicured lawns and tree-lined streets, is fit for a Norman Rockwell painting, but to Gleason, a senior at South Dakota State in Brookings, it's simply the staging ground for the most important social battle she's faced in her lifetime.
She's taken the semester off school and given up two jobs in order to gather tons of signatures and talk to hundreds of people, trying to convince them that a vote No on Referred Law 6 this November is critical for protecting women's rights. In February and March 2006, the state legislature of South Dakota passed, and Gov. Mike Rounds signed, a bill to outlaw abortion in the state.
With no exceptions for rape, incest or a woman's health--only to "prevent the death" of a pregnant woman--it is the most draconian abortion ban in the country. South Dakota is a conservative, sparsely populated place--known for its Great Plains, Black Hills and Badlands--where abortion is already so constrained that there is only one clinic for its 775,000 residents. The state's antiabortion groups thought it was a perfect place to launch a further attack, but despite the legislative victory they have an all-out battle on their hands: The ban's passage has spurred thousands of state residents such as Gleason--many of them political naifs--to action........


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