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Skip the Corn Palace

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 11:39 AM on February 27, 2006.


In the name of reproductive freedom.
aaa
You'll just have to skip the corn palace this year...

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This guest post comes from Marcy Bloom, Executive Director of Aradia Women's Health Center in Seattle, WA:

"Bypass South Dakota" is the name of the boycott called for by the Women's Medical Fund in Madison, Wisconsin, urging tourists throughout the world to deliberately avoid that state.

Abortion rights supporters are urging the public to let South Dakota's tourism department know that Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, the Corn Palace and the Badlands will not be on their list of vacation spots this year.

Although the numbers so far are small, perhaps they will grow once the public comprehends what the banning of abortion in South Dakota truly means for not only the women of that state, but for the entire country. This new law could eventually be brought to the US Supreme Court, challenging the underpinnings of Roe vs. Wade (the right to privacy) and giving the court the opportunity to dismantle Roe and send it back to the states.

How ironic this all is. Mount Rushmore is described on the National Parks Service web site as a "national memorial that reflects patriotism, beauty, and healing... the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt look down from their stony heights and remind everyone that even the impossible is possible."

For me, the right to safe abortion for the women of the US is an act of patriotism. It allows women to determine the course of their lives, is a critical public health benefit, and is a key component to women's equality. No women are depicted on Mount Rushmore. But if the impossible IS possible, maybe—just maybe— we will be able to turn back the conservative fundamentalist tide in our country and hold on to Roe.

In the meantime, you'll have to look at this memorial on web sites and in books—if you want to make a statement about the importance of abortion rights in the US. It's not too late—yet.

And maybe it's time to see some women on Mount Rushmore.

Here's the link to South Dakota's Office of Tourism and the email to the writer of the article on the subject should you want to thank him for writing an article that probably won him no popularity with South Dakota's representatives or the business community... (dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com)

For info on the state's impending legal fees and the Pro-lifer in shining armor, see Deanna's post in the Mix. (DailyKos)

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Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.


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How about we just boycott all red states?
Posted by: deepbreath on Feb 27, 2006 9:22 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Since there are more than a handful of legislators in other red states poised to introduce similar bills banning abortion, how about we just wipe them off the map once and for all?

Yes, that's ridiculous. As is this call for a tourism boycott of SD.

Anne Gaylor has run a fund for years to provide the means for women who couldn't afford an abortion to get one. Why not instead try to expand that fund so the women of SD can now use it? To cut off funding to women and native americans in an already economically oppressed state is to cut off the very funds they rely to get themselves contraceptives and to travel for reproductive services. This call for a boycott seems to me as ugly a knee jerk reaction as some the antis come up with. Which women, which native americans in SD have called for this boycott?

Besides, I'm from SD, now living in a bordering state. Should I skip holidays and the fantastic trips I take there with my grandkids many times a year? Should I skip going to see my mother because our side can't muster a better strategy than simply avoiding a state it has already avoided until the dastardly bill was passed?

A better idea would be to descend on SD. Support the majority there who don't support the outrageous bills passed there. Help defend against yet another wacky bill the antis want to put in place that would outlaw even talking about contraceptives for minors. Descend on SD (and AK and TN and....) with real information useful to defeat this damned nonsense. Start a fund to provide EC for every South Dakota woman who needs it. Start a fund to send to the SD legislature some of the many many women who have fought so hard there for the past two years, without support of national women's organizations.

Take some time to find out what the people of SD are really like. The majority do not favor banning abortion nor the other outrageous bills passed along with the ban, like granting equal parental rights to rapists. Make no mistake though, even in your own states rapists get custody and visitation all the time in that most rapes occur from men we know and are involved with, including husbands.

A tourism boycott of SD makes as much sense as banning all agricultural exports from SD - and did you know it was one of the first states to try to ban corporate farming? A pretty sensible move for a state of wackos, I'd say.

C'mon, choicers. Take a deep breath and be of use to the women of SD. Don't move to take funding away that even women who do want to have kids rely on for their wellbeing.
If you're living in a safe state, bully for you. Share some of your safety.

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only one necessary comment
Posted by: bsbremmer on Feb 27, 2006 9:54 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
deepbreath says it all no other comments needed.

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National Fund to Cross State Borders
Posted by: lamar on Feb 27, 2006 3:51 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Start a national fund to help women cross borders if they choose to end their pregnancies.

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Not just abortion outlawed, but rape victim's rights
Posted by: antk on Feb 27, 2006 4:02 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hi Evan, here are more solid views from South Dakota's Rapid City Journal:

Abortion bill cause for head scratching
By Lynn Talor Rick, Journal Staff Writer
If you’re a woman in South Dakota or if you have a daughter, wife, sister or mother in South Dakota, you might want to turn an eye to Pierre.
Because whether you consider yourself pro-choice, anti-abortion or somewhere in-between, things are not right in the state’s Capital.
The bills being passed and the bills being rejected show a startling disregard for the health, safety and intelligence of South Dakota women.
It all starts with the abortion bill.
In a replay of the 2004 session, the South Dakota Legislature has taken it upon itself to challenge federal law on the legality of abortion. The bill allows for no exceptions for rape or health of the mother.
Although I respect people’s passionate feelings on both sides of this issue, it’s growing more difficult for me to muster up any respect for the ever-increasing stridency coming from the anti-abortion camp.
That’s because the same Legislature that is barreling ahead to make abortion a criminal act is also voting to deny basic health care for rape victims.
Its members have also decided that rapists should be allowed parental rights to the children conceived during the crime.
Take a second to scratch your head if you need to.
This is actually the second year in a row that our legislators have voted to deny rape victims information about emergency contraception. The bill, SB175, failed by a 26-9 vote this time around.
...
What we shouldn’t do is allow some people within the anti-abortion movement to use women’s health and women’s rights issues as fodder for their campaign.
We can’t allow them to slip the white-hot abortion issue into common-sense bills that would otherwise be no-brainers.
They are doing this, and we are suffering for it.
The result is what’s currently happening in Pierre. Women’s bodies are being debated and voted on with little common sense and even less regard for our health, emotional and physical.
With the current mindset in place, how long do you think it will be before legislation restricting birth control surfaces? If legislators are allowed to throw around conception definitions based on religion rather than science, the birth control pill is most definitely on the chopping block.
...
Take a second to let your legislator know that you’re here and you’re watching. And don’t forget to remind them that you love to vote.
Go to http://legis.state.sd.us/index.aspx for a list of your legislators and their phone numbers.
Contact Lynn Taylor Rick at 394-8414 or lynn.taylorrick@rapidcityjournal.com

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Not so ridiculous, perhaps
Posted by: kablooie on Feb 27, 2006 7:57 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Whether or not a tourist boycott will show any economic impact in South Dakota, I have no doubt the state will experience a "brain drain" as progressive, intelligent young people leave the oppressive confines of this state.
I have witnessed such an exodus of bright, educated, and highly motivated people from my home state of Arkansas and gladly joined the march.
Sad, how one's home can become an alien place peopled by controlling, hypocritical tyrants who seek to turn the clock back to the Dark Ages. America, don't fall any further!

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» RE: Not so ridiculous, perhaps Posted by: Evan Derkacz