Now, We Fight Back!

From the AP: Gov. Mike Rounds signed the most restrictive ban on abortions in the United States. The law makes it a felony for doctors to perform an abortion unless the life of the mother is in immediate jeopardy. There is absolutely no exception for victims of rape or incest. NONE.

This law is meant to be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, and Planned Parenthood intends to fight the law in court.

There is only one abortion clinic in the entire state of South Dakota, located in Sioux Falls. Approximately 800 abortions are performed each year there, but Planned Parenthood says many women already cross state lines to reach other abortion clinics.

“This is proof-positive that Gov. Rounds cares more about politics than about the health and safety of women in South Dakota,” said Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood regional operations for Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, said in a statement Monday. “In every state, women, their families, and their doctors should be making private, personal health care decisions — not politicians.” (emphasis mine)

Rounds issued a written statement saying he expects the law will be tied up in court for years and will not take effect unless the U.S. Supreme Court upholds it.

“In the history of the world, the true test of a civilization is how well people treat the most vulnerable and most helpless in their society. The sponsors and supporters of this bill believe that abortion is wrong because unborn children are the most vulnerable and most helpless persons in our society. I agree with them,” Rounds said in the statement.

Gee, Governor, I bet the women of your state really appreciate knowing you don’t give a shit about already living, breathing South Dakotans. What’s the unemployment rate at Pine Ridge again? How many already-born children live in poverty in South Dakota?

What?? I can’t hear you Governor….

Here’s how YOU can contact Governor Rounds:

Send an email: sdgov@gov.state.sd.us
Phone the Governor’s office: (605) 773-3212
Send a postcard: Office of the Governor, 500 E. Capitol Ave, Pierre SD 57501

Get the email addresses of SD’s state senators here.
Get the email addresses of SD’s state representatives here.

Help End The War On Women!

Boycott Sturgis. Boycott South Dakota.

These are the people protecting us?!

From the Associated Press: The private security guards at the Department of Homeland Security are telling Congress that the Dept is barely able to protect its own headquarters.

The guards have taken their concerns to Congress, describing inadequate training, failed security tests and slow or confused reactions to bomb and biological threats.

For instance, when an envelope with suspicious powder was opened last fall at Homeland Security Department headquarters, guards said they watched in amazement as superiors carried it by the office of Secretary Michael Chertoff, took it outside and then shook it outside Chertoff’s window without evacuating people nearby.

The scare, caused by white powder that proved to be harmless, “stands as one glaring example” of the agency’s security problems, said Derrick Daniels, one of the first guards to respond to the incident.

The agency responsible for protecting the DHS is Wackenhut Service, Inc., which has previously been criticized for its handling of protection “at nuclear facilities and transporting nuclear weapons.”

Homeland Security officials say they have little control over Wackenhut’s training of guards but plan to improve that with a new contract. The company defends its performance, saying the suspicious powder incident was overblown because the mail had already been irradiated.

Two senators who fielded complaints from several Wackenhut employees are asking Homeland’s internal watchdog, the inspector general, to investigate.

“If the allegations brought forward by the whistleblowers are correct, they represent both a security threat and a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote. “It would be ironic, to say the least, if DHS were unable to secure its own headquarters.“ (emphasis mine)