By: Jeremie M. Jordan and Bella Vilshanetskaya
On January 22nd of 1973 it was decided that banning the right to choose to have an abortion violates the constitutional rights of women. Thirty three years later, we are still arguing about it, but recently a change has come along.
On November 7th, the state of South Dakota will be deciding whether or not to outlaw abortion. Because our campus is peppered with wonderful women who believe in women’s rights, this past Friday, October 6th, there was a Potluck for Choice held in Spalt 007. Great effort was put in by the Womyn’s Center coordinators Beth Jones and Meredith Root. The 25ish guests in attendance were asked to donate at least one dollar to help support Planned Parenthood of South Dakota to fight this preposterous proposal. The food was reportedly yummy as well. On the subject of the ban, a student in attendance said, “The implications of the government putting laws on our bodies go far beyond one’s personal stance on abortion.� It’s not about babies, it’s about choice. Small people behind big desks shouldn’t be able to make our decisions for us. It is one of the goals of the Womyn’s Center to educate not only females, but the entire campus about issues concerning and affect- ing women today.
Pro-choicers have their cake and eat it, too.
Photo by Kari Thompson
The abortion ban would outlaw all abortions other than the follow-ing circumstance: If the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. Silly excuses such as other health concerns, cases of rape, and cases of incest will not be tolerated. (I wonder how the supporters of this law would feel if their twelve or thirteen year old daughter was sexually assaulted and got pregnant as a result.) To make sure that nobody is doing anything that they shouldn’t be, a doctor could face five years in prison for performing an illegal abortion. In February, the South Dakota Legislator passed the abortion ban with ease. In order to avoid a lawsuit that would cause the courts to endlessly rehash Roe v. Wade, pro-life supporters collected signatures and the ban was placed on the ballot. In the most recent poll found, 47 percent of South Dakota voters opposed the ban, 39 percent supported it, and 14 percent stand undecided. If the ban included exceptions for rape and incest, support would be 59 percent. If the pro-choice population dominates the results, the pro-life population will include exceptions for rape and incest and put the issue up for vote again. continued ….p13 The state of the Womyn’s Center of Antioch is not alone in this fight. Nationwide, over 200 potlucks have been held so far and more are being planned. Potlucks for choice are not the only opposition to the South Dakota abortion ban out there today. The holders of the potlucks want us to think of our sisters, our aunts, our mothers, our daughters (for those of us who have offspring), our cousins, and all of the other women in our lives and how this will constrict their rights. Abortion is not a method of birth control but it needs to remain a choice. The pro-lifers seem to be catching up to us; we need to find larger artillery. Perhaps the Record’s “Munition of the Weekâ€? can help us out with that. Just kidding, we don’t want to shoot them, we just want them to see it our way.
Bright pink armbands and their explanation were handed out at the potluck. Betty Friedan, a student at Wellesley, organized a facebook group called “I’m Wearing an Armband for Choice�. The group suggests selling armbands made of hot pink cloth at a suggested donation, the profits of which will go to the Planned Parenthood Action fund of Minnesota and South Dakota, to help educate the voters. Donations from the “Armband for Choice� and the Potlucks will be sent to:
PPMNS Action Fund
Attn: Allison F.
1200 Lagoon Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Personal donations can be sent to the address above as well. If the ban passes in South Dakota, the trend will waterfall through the rest of the country. Our beloved president supports this ban. How would he feel if he was pregnant? Mr. President would probably reply “I’m a man, I can’t get pregnant.� He would become a prolifer in a heartbeat if one of his precious baby girls got pregnant. First he won’t send them to war, next he will be protecting them from the world (more so than he already does). He is a man behind a big desk in a big white house who thinks he can control the choices of women, whose population he couldn’t begin to count (he can’t count that high). Educate yourself, so that you can know where you stand on every issue that affects you and those issues which you feel passionate about.