South Dakota Planned Parenthood Advocate

Join Us in Pierre!

Pro-Women, Pro-Choice Women 4 Women Lobby Day will take place in Pierre on January 28, 2013!

The day is sponsored by Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota, South Dakota Advocacy Network for Women, and ACLU-SD.

As always, Lobby Day will be a full day of activities focused on women and the issues that are most important to them.       

After registration at the Capitol’s Visitor’s Center in the morning, we will sit in on committee hearings, observe the Senate and House chambers in action and end the day with informational sessions and a legislative reception. Lunch will be provided.

We are excited to show the South Dakota Legislature that we are tired of lawmaking that attempts to legislate personal medical decisions.

Now is a crucial time for the South Dakota Legislature to see that we don’t want politicians getting involved in complex and personal medical decisions anymore!

Demand that your voice be heard!

There is a $15 registration fee to cover lunch and other expenses for the day. Scholarships are available. Please contact Jenny Rackl at jenny@prochoicesd.org for scholarship information.

Order your ticket online here.

Check out the event on Facebook.

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 - 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

National Women's Health Week

National Women’s Health Week is May 13 – 19^th, and it’s a great week to bring together communities, businesses, health organizations and other groups to promote women’s health. With busy schedules and summer fast approaching, perhaps this one week of recognizing women’s health just does not seem to fit into those planners.

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

Women Vote 2012

Article, after article, after article discusses why women need to vote in November (and April and June). Women, especially young women largely stayed home in 2010 and look where that got us.

According to Ms. Magazine, “Women must mobilize, register, and flex our electoral might to hold onto our crucial health and economic rights. Join the effort by blogging, Tweeting under the hashtag #HERvotes, supporting efforts to register women to vote, and most of all, helping the highest number of women in history to vote in 2012.”

Locally, South Dakota State University is hosting Women’s Work: SDSU Conference on Political Empowerment to foster political empowerment among female under-graduate students.

To that end, Planned Parenthood MN, ND, SD has started Women Vote 2012. Women can take the pledge to vote in November, RSVP to vote in the election on Facebook and keep up with important updates.

This is it, ladies. We’ve worked too hard for too long to stay home and give up now. It’s time we think like a suffragist and GOWV (Get Out Women’s Votes).

~ Carmen, Planned Parenthood Advocate

2012 Team Roe Candidate Training

We have a huge opportunity and a huge responsibility to elect pro choice candidates to the South Dakota State Legislature in November. Today is the final deadline for candidates to file signatures run for office and by the looks of it, we have a pretty great selection!

Being a pro choice candidate can be difficult – even though a majority of South Dakotans are pro choice! We want to make sure these candidates are as prepared as possible to hit the campaign trail. That’s why Planned Parenthood MN, ND, SD Action Fund, NARAL Pro Choice South Dakota, and the SD Campaign for Healthy Families PAC are planning the first-ever Team Roe Candidate Training!

The training will include: Media Training, Talking About Choice, Fundraising from Start to Finish, New Media Basics, and Field 201 – Beyond the Basics. This training is for candidates and campaign workers, Democrats and Republicans, volunteers, and friends.

Did I mention the training is FREE? AND that lunch is included? What more could one ask for?

The training will be held at Bracco in Sioux Falls on Saturday, April 21 from 10am-5pm. You can RSVP to me at ctoft@ppmns.org or 605-695-1788. Please RSVP by Wednesday, April 18 so we can plan for meals and materials.

~Carmen, Planned Parenthood Advocate

Cupid's Basement at Northern State University

I spent Valentine’s Eve with some outstanding students at Northern State University at an event called Cupid’s Basement, co-sponsored by Residential Life and Planned Parenthood.

Like any good college event, there was free pizza and free condoms. Students watched MTV’s Top 10 Most Outrageous Sex Myths and then engaged in a hotly contested game of Sex Ed Trivia.

After the event I hung around and talked Federal and state legislation. Of particular interest was the “Good Samaritan” bill which would have granted limited immunity to people who attempt to help minors in need of emergency assis-tance, assumedly from drugs or alcohol. (SB 86 ultimately failed in the house judiciary committee.) I was impressed at the breadth of their knowledge and interest in politics. The next generation is in good hands.

~ Carmen, 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