When Governor Mike Rounds signed HB 1215 into law it effectively banned all abortions in South Dakota 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, infuriated many of us, but truly sent a shudder through the backbones of feminists.
I leave out men here, because the shudder was to the fact that women who are vicitimized at the hands of men, impregnated by men, are forced by the LAW, to bear the full burden of violation.
On March 21, 2006, the President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder stated: to "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."
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