Rushmore State Takes it Time on Abortion

South Dakota is taking extraordinary measures to ensure abortion prevention statewide.  Last month, the Mount Rushmore State Senate passed a bill extending the mandatory waiting period for an abortion to a country high 72 hours.  Not a normal 72 hours, however, but only business day hours (excluding weekends and holidays).  The bill also stipulates that any woman intending to have the procedure will have to undergo counseling from a pro-life activist.

The only non-emergency abortion center in the ENTIRE state sits in the city of Sioux Falls.  Disregarding the fact that most women will have to drive hours just to get to the facility, but they will also have to wait up to 6 days before their operation can be completed.

Advocates of this bill believe that these harsh mandates will allow women the chance to contemplate their decision.  If they are willing to give up a week just to get the procedure done, I think they have sufficiently made up their mind.  Dont get me wrong, an abortion is not to be taken lightly and should be intensely thought out, but its wrong to push your agenda on an already vulnerable woman.

If women do not have the ability to decide when and how they start a family, they will continue to be economically disenfranchised. It is perfectly fine to be pro-life. Yet to force women into having children that they can’t economically support just on the basis of religious or political principle is unjust and cruel.

- Jordan Vesey

South Dakota Abortion Laws:Longest Mandatory Waiting Times in U.S Introduced