South Dakota Planned Parenthood Advocate

Young Men, Teen Dads, and Sex Education

When the subject of teen pregnancy comes up, the focus usually falls on the young women who have the children. Unfortunately, often the young men don’t stick around. But sometimes they do and they try to do their best to be fathers to their children, even if they are unprepared for the task.

MTV, in its special focusing on teen moms recently turned the spotlight on the teen dads. What these young men thought about pregnancy and their choices is alarming.

South Dakota Meets Mississippi

Last month we told you about this thing called “personhood” that has descended into Mississippi. Today, I am pleased to tell you that I have joined the fight in Jackson, MS as a volunteer for Mississippians for Healthy Families -– the committee opposing the initiative -- for the remainder of the campaign. Considering all of the outpouring of support that the nation showed South Dakota in 2006 and 2008, I am only too happy to repay some of those blood, sweat and tears. (No blood or tears yet, but it’s still early.)

Unofficial TTRT Book Club - The Cider House Rules

I read The Cider House Rules years before I started working or volunteering for PPMNS. It’s a beautifully written novel that continues to shape about how I feel about our work providing pregnancy tests, adoption referrals and abortion care in South Dakota.

"He was an obstetrician; he delivered babies into the world. His colleagues called this 'the Lord's work.' And he was an abortionist; he delivered mothers, too. His colleagues called this 'the devil's work,' but it was all the Lord's work to Wilbur Larch. As Mrs. Maxwell had observed, 'The true physician's soul cannot be too broad and gentle.'" This is the essence of John Irving's The Cider House Rules: delivery from desperation without judgment, neither passion nor prejudice. Dr. Wilbur Larch gave women what they asked for—either an orphan or an abortion.

~Carmen, Planned Parenthood Advocate

House Votes to Allow Hospitals to Deny Lifesaving Care

On Thursday, October 13th the House of Representatives passed the bill HR 358, the “Protect Life Act.” The bill is an attempt to alter the current law, which legally compels hospitals to provide emergency care to anyone in need, regardless of his or her ability to pay. However, in an attempt to divorce abortion procedures from federal funds, the bill would allow federally-funded hospitals (those that received support from Medicare and Medicaid) to deny life-saving procedures to women in need of emergency abortion, a measure which Nancy Pelosi argued would let women “die on the floor.” Pelosi was one of several outspoken opponents to the bill.

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) shared her own story:

“I was pregnant, I was miscarrying, I was bleeding. . . If I had to go from one hospital to the next trying to find one emergency room that would take me in, who knows if I would even be here today. What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to do is misogynist.”

The bill, received and read by the Senate on Monday October 17th, is unlikely to pass. The White House has also issued an official statement saying that should the bill reach the Oval Office, Obama will veto it because “the legislation intrudes on women’s reproductive freedom and access to health care.”

The issue has been covered, among many other news vendors, by the International Business Times, The Huffington Post and Politico.

 

-by Kalie Caetano, Web Correspondent, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund 

Planned Parenthood's 95th Anniversary

In the past 95 years, Planned Parenthood has grown to be the nation’s leading women’s health care provider and advocate. There are nearly 800 Planned Parenthood health centers nationwide, providing health care services and information to millions of women, men and teenagers every year — and this is care that many of them would not be able to receive if not for Planned Parenthood.

The Team Roe Times October Issue!

We are excited to present to you the FIFTH issue of The Team Roe Times, a joint project between Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and NARAL Pro Choice South Dakota! Packed inside this informative newsletter is an update on TTRT women, Planned Parenthood's 95th Anniversary, anti-choice attacks on Virginia and Mississippi, the latest book in our TTRT Unofficial Book Club and SO MUCH MORE.

Download The Team Roe Times Vol 1 Issue 5 or click here to read it on the web.

South Dakota - Bad for Women, Bad for Babies

As soon as I saw the headline of Sarah Seltzer’s article on Alternet in September, I knew South Dakota would be on the list. Any article that starts with “Which State Is Winning the Race to the Bottom to Become the Worst Place for Women?” is bound to include South Dakota. Our state has a long and proud tradition of legislating against women and families.

Paired with Ohio, Kansas and Virginia, Seltzer highlights our 2011 law that passed, requiring a 72 hour waiting period (the longest in the nation) and mandatory visit to a crisis pregnancy center. Currently, that law has been enjoined and did not go into effect in July. She also references a 2005 law where the state tried to mandate that the patient be told that abortion increases the risk of suicide and suicide ideation. There is no credible medical evidence to support this and, earlier this month, a panel of judges struck this provision down. As of September 30, the state of South Dakota has asked the court to reconsider this ruling.

Sex Education Protects the Future

Sex. It's something we are exposed to on a daily basis. From billboards to music to television, sex is a common theme in our society. We are exposed to sex everywhere except where it counts the most: in the classroom. When I ask my peers where they learned about sex, almost all of them answer "from TV" or "from the Internet," and I think this is dangerous.

Young adults can be misinformed and make mistakes that will affect them for the rest of their lives. And that is why I support Planned Parenthood's Sex Ed Week of Action so fully. I believe that comprehensive sex education is the best way to protect our future, and as president of the SDSU Campus Women's Coalition I am doing my part with my fellow coalition members.

Medicaid Cuts Would Harm Women’s Health

 

 

In an article for The Huffington Post, U.S. Representative Mike Honda (D-CA) wrote that the “biggest casualty” in the initiatives to cut Medicaid and Medicare have been women’s health programs, especially preventive and reproductive health services, such as those that Planned Parenthood provides.

“Despite this, Republicans call for deficit reduction deals that would substantially cut Medicaid as well as Medicare and Social Security, and have a disproportionate impact on the health and economic security of women nationwide. Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will be debilitating to women and families who rely on these programs to afford preventive and reproductive health services. This is no time to gouge a gaping hole in social safety nets that protect these communities from falling into poverty and poor health.”

These proposed cuts are following in the wake of Congress’ restriction of Title X funding, which supported family planning services and saved taxpayers “at least $3.4 billion in health care costs annually”.

Rep. Honda also notes that this trend has diffused into other levels of government, particularly California state government, and other local governments, whose budget cuts have withdrawn support for women’s health programs.

Read Rep. Honda’s full comments on the Huffington Post.

~ Kalie Caetano, Web Correspondent, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

Senate Committee Bans Presidents from Playing Politics with International Family Planning Programs

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment to a bill that, if signed into law, will block re-imposition of the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule.

The amendment, introduced by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), would mean that future presidents will not have the authority to refuse funding to foreign NGOs that provide advice, counseling or information regarding abortion, or that lobby a foreign government to legalize or make abortion available.

A bill approved this summer cut international family planning funding by 25 per cent from current levels and re-instated the Global Gag Rule. It also included a blanket prohibition on U.S. funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This week¹s bill reversed all that, approving funding for international reproductive health programs and U.S. contributions to UNFPA. The current senate bill includes $700 million for family planning programs.

The Global Gag Rule has been an intermittent government policy, put in place by President Reagan in 1984, rescinded in 1993 by President Clinton, re-instituted in 2001 by President Bush, and rescinded again in 2009 by President  Obama.

The original policy directed the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to withhold funds from NGOs that provided advice, counseling, or information regarding abortion, or lobbied to legalize or make abortion available, even if the NGOs engaged in those activities with non-USAID funds. Some NGOs that did decline U.S. funding under the Gag Rule were forced to close clinics and/or cut services.

In addition to reducing the overall funding provided to those NGOs, the Gag Rule cut off their access to USAID-supplied condoms and other forms of contraception. This lead to a decrease in contraception use and, as a result, an increase in unintended pregnancies, abortion, and transmission of STIs.

By Anna, Web Correspondent, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund