I have been watching the last month's debates up to yesterday's signing of the new anti-abortion bill in South Dakota. The point in all of the discussions that seem to be missing is the link back to who wins in this new initiative?
Let's look at the key players in this ongoing debate. Roger Hunt and Leslie Unrue are two of the named players. The unnamed ones are those that contribute (and vow to continue) money to keep this campaign going in the state, ignoring the popular will of the people, not just once, but twice, that want things kept as they are.
When I first heard that Hunt was putting forward this latest attempt, which now requires women to submit to pre-abortion "counseling" from a "pregnancy help center", my first thought turned to Leslie Unruh and the Alpha Center she runs in Sioux Falls. "It's about the money" was the first thought that came into my head. Of course Unruh and Hunt go back a long ways in the abortion wars in South Dakota. As South Dakota turned national attention to its ongoing battle with abortion rights, who profited? Leslie Unruh, as she turned her role into national fame. Now with a couple of losses notched on her belt, what's a girl to do? Create more need for her services and renew her bonifides as a national speaker.
Of course increasing your walk in traffic adds to your count, which in turn leads to increased grant funding. And of course there is the fund raising that goes on to help the state in these court battles. Leslie knows all about that. Now we find her husband is behind efforts to raise the money to "defend this bill". How long are we going to allow this couple to profit at our state's expense?
That brings us to Roger Hunt. Long a pal of the Unruh's, Hunt had his own problems with fund raising during the last abortion vote. Of course we still don't know the identity of his mysterious donor, or for that matter how much of that went into Hunts pocket for "expenses". Never mind that our current Attorney General felt it wasn't worth his while to further challenge the case.
So there we have it. It the midst of having to balance our state budget with deep cuts to education and health care on top, the new Governor wants to set us down the road to another law suit. I don't trust Jackley's opinion that it will stand a challenge. We already are fighting a battle with one abortion bill and now the state will have to fund another.
The final question is, how long are we going to allow the state of South Dakota to be a launch pad for a national attempt at limiting women's health choices? We already know that South Dakota women are the losers. Even before this latest attempt, women in South Dakota cannot simply walk into an abortion clinic today and get an abortion. Because the nearest abortion clinic may be hundred's of miles away from any point in Western South Dakota, women already have a "mandatory" wait of at least several days. And I don't think many of them are thinking of other things than the consequence of their actions while they wait. More of that thought tomorrow.
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