South Dakota Planned Parenthood Advocate

Club for Choice

Are you a young adult in the 18-30 age range who is passionate about Planned Parenthood, the right to choose, and other issues affecting us today?

Join us for the launch of Club for Choice on December 18th at 7:00PM in the meeting room at Caribou Coffee!

What is Club for Choice?

Club for Choice will be “book club” although our monthly topics won’t necessarily be books.

My two interns and I believe that it is great to keep ourselves informed on women’s rights issues across the world and have been sharing with each other articles, blog posts, and videos throughout the fall and thought it would be great to expand upon this.

Thus we are forming Club for Choice to bring together young people that want to stay informed and discuss such topics with like-minded people!

We hope that you will join us on December 18th for the launch of Club for Choice or at least stay tuned for other meetings that you may be able to attend.

If you have any questions please email me at MWellner@ppmns.org!

We cannot wait to see you all at the Club for Choice launch!

**Caribou Coffee is located at

   28th & Minnesota

   1924 South Minnesota Avenue

   Sioux Falls, SD 57105

Unofficial TTRT "Book" Club---Blog Month Take 2

Pro-choice activists have taken to the internet, using blogs as a platform in the fight for women’s reproductive rights. They are dispensing information and interacting with the community–all with the click of a mouse. Here are a couple examples of online pro-choice blogs that are virtually spreading the pro-choice message. 

Safe Legal Abortion IS Pro-Life (http://safe-legal-abortion-is-prolife.tumblr.com/)

This is a personal blog with plenty of attitude. You can read a variety of posts about everything from the examination of anti-choice arguments to resources for decision-making. There is lots of passion for reproductive justice packed into this blog.

Abortion Gang (http://abortiongang.org/)

Abortion Gang is a collection of “unapologetic” activists for reproductive justice. They use their blog posts to talk about what drives, inspires, challenges and outrages them in the reproductive rights movement. These women are all “using new media to change the way we think about and interact with activism.”

Radical Handmaids (http://radicalhandmaids.com/)

This blog is hosted by a Canadian pro-choice activist group, the Radical Handmaids. But although it isn’t about the reproductive battle in the United States, our neighbors to the north often fight the same challenges to their reproductive freedoms. The site proclaims that these activists “remain committed to creatively resisting anti-choice attacks on reproductive rights.” The Radical Handmaids formed in April 2012 to (successfully) defeat Motion 312, which would have called Canada to re-examine when human life begins. Pretty impressive,eh?

Guest Post by Jenny Rackl, Programs Associate at NARAL Pro-Choice SD

Unofficial TTRT Book Club - Blog Month

Combine the World Wide Web and a personal log and what do you get? The increasingly prolific “blog”—a virtual tool for documentation, communication and personal expression.  As such, some prochoice activists are using blogs as a platform in the fight for reproductive rights. They are dispensing information and interacting with the community all with the click of a mouse. Here are a couple examples of online pro-choice blogs that you might want to check out. The blogosphere can be a place for you to learn more and join the conversation.

 Feministing (http://feministing.com)

This site provides a forum for a variety of feminist voices and organizations. An added perk of the site is that they keep the conversation progressive and safe—they censor anti-feminist, racist, homophobic and otherwise hateful speech. It’s a great place to start contributing.

 RH Reality Check (http://rhrealitycheck.org)

This site is an online community serving those committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights. RH Reality Check wants to empower you with information. They compile the postings of various bloggers, giving you one place where you can go to find many people discussing health and reproductive rights.

~ Jenny Rackl, NARAL Pro Choice SD

 

Unofficial TTRT Book Club - Lizz Free or Die

I love Lizz Winstead. Love, love, love, love. She’s a comedienne, a feminist and an activist. Lizz grew up in our neighboring state of Minnesota, does comedy benefits for Planned Parenthood, and was co-creator of The Daily Show. If you’re interested in politics and women’s issues specifically and have a chance to see Lizz perform live, I highly recommend it (she had me in tears on New Year’s Eve this past year).

Her collection of what she calls "messays" was released this month and it is all at once funny, thought-provoking and heartwarming. While many of her essays aren’t choice related, a feminist theme can be found throughout. Along with being a champion for choice in her day-to-day life, Lizz includes a very frank essay about her own teenage pregnancy. I don’t want to spoil anything, but this particular essay is pertinent to what we’ve been experiencing legislatively in South Dakota over the last couple of years. A great read by a great supporter of women, I recommend everyone check it out!

~ Alisha Sedor, NARAL Pro Choice South Dakota

The Team Roe Times May 2012 Issue!

We are excited to present to you the fifth issue of The Team Roe Times in 2012, a joint project between Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and NARAL Pro Choice South Dakota!

Packed inside this issue is an update on Representative Noem and the Violence Against Women Act, a book review for Lizz Free or Die, information on Measure 3 in North Dakota, AND SO MUCH MORE! Please share widely!

Download The Team Roe Times Vol 2 Issue 5

Unofficial TTRT Book Club - Grace for President

My colleague from North Dakota, Amy, bought Grace for President for her daughter and thought that our TTRT book club readers might have future some presidents in their families.

From the website, “When Grace’s teacher revels that the United States has never had a female president, Grace decides to be the first. And she immediately starts off her political career as a candidate in the school’s mock election. But soon she realizes that she has entered a tough race.

This timely story not only gives readers a fun introduction to the American electoral system but also teaches them the value of hard work, courage, and independent thought—and offers an inspiring example of how to choose our leaders.”

Reviews for this gem includes "...the book delivers lessons on electoral votes, polls, and the reason every vote counts." - The New York Times

"DiPucchio and Pham are game gals. Explaining the electoral system to adults isn’t easy, but they make it understandable to kids." - Booklist

~Carmen, Planned Parenthood Advocate

Call for Book Club Submissions

Readers—we need your help: we’re out of books!

We’re planning ahead for summer. We’re in need of four (or more) guest posts for the summer months of The Team Roe Times Unofficial Book Club. If you’ve read a pro-choice book or two (and we’re sure you have!) let us know the book and if you’d be willing to submit a review for our newsletter. You can submit a comment here or you can email me at ctoft@ppmns.org.

Book reviews aren’t difficult and are around 200 words. The best part of book club is showing off the cool/ smart/ funny book you’ve read!

Thanks in advance for helping out. I can’t wait to see what you’ve read!

~Carmen, Planned Parnethood Advocate

The Team Roe Times April Issue!

We are excited to present to you the fourth issue of The Team Roe Times in 2012, a joint project between Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and NARAL Pro Choice South Dakota!

Packed inside this fabulous issue is a book review of "Grace for President", information on SDSU's Campus Women's Coalition's Week to End Violence, the Name It. Change It. philosophy, details on the film "October Baby", AND SO MUCH MORE! Please enjoy and share widely.

Download The Team Roe Times Vol 2 Issue 4

Unofficial TTRT Book Club - Any Mother's Daughter

One person who doesn’t need any persuading on the HPV vaccine issue is Bonnie Diraimondo, a Registered Nurse and longtime sufferer of vulvar, cervical and anal cancer linked to high-risk strains of HPV. In “Any Mother’s Daughter,” Diraimondo provides a brief history of the virus (jackalopes are involved!) and gets imprimatur in a forward from Dr. Harald zur Hausen, a 2008 Nobel Prize winner for his work in discovering HPV’s link to cervical cancer.

But the bulk of this book is not for the faint of heart, as Diraimondo describes the painful, grueling and endless series of treatments (surgery, radiation and chemotherapy) she receives for recurring and life-threatening lesions. Diraimondo also does not spare any detail as she is cast into the nine rings of the nation’s health-care system: there are mislabeled biopsies, insensitive and judgmental remarks, out-of-network-care nightmares and chemotherapy dosage errors.

Along the way, there are some knights in shining lab coats, but they are rare. As to whether or not to have your daughter vaccinated, Diraimondo poses a blunt question: If your daughter should develop an HPV-related cancer in the future, “Can you handle being accountable for a decision which could have prevented it?”

~ Sarah T. Williams, Planned Parenthood Advocate

The Team Roe Times March Issue!

We are excited to present to you the third issue of The Team Roe Times in 2012, a joint project between Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and NARAL Pro Choice South Dakota!

Packed inside this fabulous issue is a book review of "Any Mother's Daughter" about the HPV vaccine, a summary of the South Dakota Legislature, the Blunt Amendment vote, the debut of "Women Vote 2012", an introduction to our new intern, AND SO MUCH MORE! Please enjoy and share widely.

Download The Team Roe Times Vol 2 Issue 3