Someone is fighting back against the right’s war on healthcare and a woman’s right to choose in South Dakota.
“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.
The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, was incensed. A former nurse and healthcare giver she was very angry that a state body made up mostly of white males, would make such a stupid law against women.
To me, it is now a question of sovereignty, she said to me last week. I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.
(via mefi)
James Dobson’s next sermon:
“Smallpox Blankets: An Idea Ahead Of Its Time”.
Of course, someone is fighting it… You’re surprized?
Why is is that when liberals object to anything, there’s always the accompanying idea that they are some kind of lone voice crying in the wilderness, when they are always supported by a vast array of political, Hollywood, and journalistic cheerleaders?
BTW. Rheinhard: The “smallpox blankets” story is a myth
Read it and weep.
Rheinhard: What the heck does this have to do with the abortion issue?
Frank_D: Not sure where you get the ‘lone voice’ meme, but it is worth noting that there is currently only ONE clinic in the whole state of S.D., and the abortionist has to fly in from another state.
Respectfully,
a fellow citizen
Um, excuse me Frank… I hate to interrupt your delusions of grandeur, but do you see the words “Ward Churchill” anywhere in what I wrote? I don’t know about the specific incident you’re going on about (though I’ll admit to being suspicious of right-wing triumphalist research when Ward Churchill is mentioned in any way), but there is little doubt about the fact that smallpox blankets and other methods tantamount to genocide were used against native Americans at other times in our history.
I’ll leave aside the fact that your pathetic little attempt at a “gotcha” ignores the main implication of my little snark; that I expect to see the mighty Wurlitzer of the religious right cranking into high gear any moment now demanding new laws and punitive actions against the uppity Injuns who dare defy our good white Christian legislators.
Frank;
As usual you dismiss the entire premise when you find one falsehood
to hang your hat on.
Are you going to tell us you think there was no attempt by the U.S.
government at genocide?
Maybe you can show us all how the federal bounty paid for each
bison tongue, was not designed to wipe out a primary resource
for plains indians.
I have nothing but praise for Cecilia Thunder Fire and her decision not to take South Dakota s indefensible abortion ban lying down. But it s important to remember that a Planned Parenthood clinic on the Pine Ridge Reservation is a band-aid, it is not a complete remedy. The real problem with anti-abortion legislation, in South Dakota and elsewhere, is displacement: the outsourcing of abortion to other states, to other countries, or even to private, unsupervised bedrooms thanks to do-it-yourself online manuals.
For a glimpse of South Dakota s future we need only to look across the Atlantic at Portugal, which has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe (although, it should be noted, at least Portugal s abortion prohibitions provide for an exception in the case of rape).
Cecilia Thunder Fire is doing an admirable thing, stepping up to the plate in an attempt to assist the South Dakotan women who would suffer most from the abortion ban: the socially and physically disadvantaged, and the victims of violence and abuse. But she should not be forced by the state of South Dakota to bear that burden alone.
South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds, in his statement accompanying the signing of the anti-abortion legislation, said the following:
It s an admirable goal, to protect the most vulnerable and most helpless in society, and it is one that South Dakota is failing at. Miserably.
cleo and rheinhard: Amherst is mentioned the article. not just Churchill.
cleo, don’t tell me what I do, “as usual.” Half the time, you don’t what you’re doing, let alone what I’m doing.
Whether or not the government was committing “genocide” against the Indians, there is historical data, and there is myth. The smallpox blankets business is bullshit.
And I didn’t bring it up for any reason, Rheinhard brought it up. For whatever reason (his totally gratuitous) “little snark” was made up about someone who wasn’t even involved in this, and, as far as I know, has never had a word to say about Indians.
What does this have to do with abortion in SD? Ask Rheinhardt.
And before any of you lefties even think it, No, I have nothing against Indians, but I do feel that keeping them on reservations now is just about as horrible as anything that may have attempted against them in the past. There should be no reservations. and I say that without reservation.
Can’t remember where I read it, but I read that, even if Cecilia Thunder Fire creates her clinic, according to SD amendments the application of native law within the state, she would only be able to treat her fellow native Americans.
SD can close down any clinic opened by non-natives on native land, can prohibit them from hiring any non-natives to work in the clinic, and can prosecute the patient and the doctor if the patient is not native American.
Bill N: I got the idea from numerous repetitions of the same theme on this blog — Someone is fighting back against…
Meanwhile, lawsuits are in progress, and I think the courts have already put a hold on closing PP clinics
BTW, even I thought this was funny&
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/03/23/comic_advises_women_.html
From your linked article, Frank,
So, obviously, the use of smallpox infected blankets against American Indians is categorically NOT bullshit. Whether it was ALSO used later in the mid 1800s on a grander scale (as cited in the article in reference to Ward Churchill, whom I will posit is a loon), may be debatable, but to simply state that any mention of this despicable act is “bullshit” is an attempt at a sweeping historical whitewash cum right-wing apologia.
And, to reiterate, my implication is that I fully expect to see the religious “war on poor women” crowd to begin demanding punitive legal action against any Indian tribes that use their special reservation status to work around their abortion ban, should it somehow manage to survive the numerous other legal challenges being mounted against it.
From your article:
As for surviving “the numerous other legal challenges being mounted against it,” you can rest easy. The slaughter will probably continue. YaY!
“Whether or not the government was committing genocide against the Indians, there is historical data, and there is myth. The smallpox blankets business is bullshit.”
That’s great Frank. From the article you cited:
“Few historians would dispute that during the Plains Indian wars, selected U.S. military forces did perpetuate massacres that can easily be construed as genocidal in intent … But did the U.S. military ever deploy smallpox blankets?”
Um, after the first sentence, who fucking cares? And BTW, all the talk that the Nazis killed Jews with axes at Auschwitz is crap because everyone knows that they used gas. So there.
For someone who who prides himself on his ability to grind away at details, ad nauseam, I’m surprised that this particular detail seems unworthy of your attention.
I had suspected that your intellectual fastidiousness was reserved only for conservative ideas. Now there is evidence.
The Nazis killed 6 millions Jews.
They also killed 6 million Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies,homosexuals, mentally ill and developmentally disabled, and other dissenters.
But, um, after the first sentence, who cares?