December 5, 2008
Scoreboard for pro-lifers in SD in 2008 - 2 big wins, 1 big loss
Other bloggers may relish in it, but when I write something here and fragments of it appear in the newspaper the next day, most of the time I don't appreciate it. I would appreciate it if the fragments were used in context. I'm referring to my post yesterday on Planned Parenthood's supposed "laying off" of Kate Looby. Today a couple fragments of that post made the Argus Leader.
My friend Kathi Di Nicola at Planned Parenthood in Minneapolis was quoted saying the only thing an employer can publicly say about someone not employed there any longer - nice things. That's fine. But then the Argus drops in a line about me saying we are winning, which of course looks nuts all by itself because we obviously lost the IM11 vote. The fact that I was specifically referring to the enormous Informed Consent win and the 16 states that are putting that legislation in this year is lost to the reader. Looby botched this big time and Planned Parenthood knows high court recognition of the personhood of the unborn, which the SD Informed Consent ruling established, crumbles the foundation supporting their bottom line.
So let's recap the year… Looby lost the sonogram and the Informed Consent bills and was apparently sidelined for the IM11 campaign. Scoreboard for pro-lifers in SD in 2008 - 2 big wins, 1 big loss.
Then the Argus drops in my line about Planned Parenthood "cleaning house." That too makes no sense apart from what that comment was tied to - how Looby became an embarrassment and a liability to Planned Parenthood through the Informed Consent case and how they sidelined her from running these campaigns. Also, the house cleaning comment was tied to the firing of a PP worker who was caught on tape covering up a sex crime against a 13 year old girl. And I clearly presented these as my theories as to what Planned Parenthood is really up to here.
My view is that this is lazy reporting that does nothing to help anyone understand what is really happening on either side of the fence in the abortion battle.
On the one hand a Planned Parenthood spokesperson says niceties because they can't (legally) and won't (morally) tell the truth. (Has anything Planned Parenthood ever said actually been true??) On the other hand those who believe the unborn are human are made out to be wackos who can't wake up to the reality that we lost.
What I expected to see in the Argus this morning was a quote from Kate Looby herself which was readily available over at Dakota Women. Why didn't that get used? Come to think of it, I've not seen a newspaper in our state quote Dakota Women. I guess anonymity doesn't lend itself to credibility.
Di Nicola is quoted as saying they aren't backing down one bit. I can attest to that… though their post-election second-graderish gloating is subsiding (all they could say for two weeks is - suck it) the haters haven't stopped harassing me or our church. The vandals still visit, the witchcraft, the personal threats still come. Yesterday I learned I am being stalked by a crazy, angry, I-love-abortion jezebel. God loves her. I'm trying.
I guess they hated Martin Luther King Jr. too for the fact that he saw humanity in those the majority considered sub-human. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere is how he said it. He also said, the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. That's the justice drum I'm marching to, not the noise of those under the spell of the spirit of the age.
Comments on Scoreboard for pro-lifers in SD in 2008 - 2 big wins, 1 big loss »
Stephanie @ 1:32 pm
Steve,
Don't worry too much about the Argus. Honestly who really cares what the Argus says. We all know that the Argus isn't guided by God. I have already canceled my Argus Leader subscription and my parents are considering canceling theirs. Just not impressed with them at all anymore. I feel as though they can only cover the liberal's voice. Why would I ever pay or waste my time reading that??!!
caheidelberger @ 7:44 am
Just working from what Pastor Hickey wrote: Stephanie, if the Arugs only covered the liberal voice, wouldn't it have quoted Dakota Women and not Pastor Hickey?
Laura Ross @ 12:58 pm
The Informed Consent bill came about in 2005, did it not? You must be thinking its a 2008 "win" because the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals found that after the stunning and incredulous ruling by the Supreme Court in Gonzales v Carhart it was compelled to rule in favor of a portion of the Informed Consent Act - the part that forces doctors to utter untruths to their patients. The rest of that case went back to the Federal District judge, did it not? The case that intervenor Unruh's attorney Harold Cassidy has spent at least half a million dollors on and we don't even know yet how much Larry Long has spent defending the State's position, which it acquiesced to Unruh herself and the funky SD Task Farce on Abortion, which Kate Looby rightfully and diligently sought to block after it was railroaded through that committee's membership. To sum, it is not a victory to impede good health care decisions between women and their doctors. Score no one.
The sonogram bill was opposed by those on both sides of the political spectrum. Deb Peters delivered eloquent and convincing remarks on the House floor but her fellow Republicans and some Dems, favoring in part the positions of the Pope and Avera Corporation, blew off her personal experience and opted for craven ideology and not-so-veiled contempt for women (we call it the nuts and sluts prosecution in litigation). Mind you, this bill took up precious time at legislature while the Informed Consent Act was still being litigated, so the legislature didn't even bother to wait and see what the Courts might say about the legality of the thing. When you're hunting for a million dollars for schools or highways or whatever needs come up this session, let's not forget what these kinds of bills cost us in real dollars and by the submission of the publics' will to those of a few.
Again, Looby didn't "lose" the sonogram bill (as if she's the only one there lobbying or that legislators can't possibly listen to their constituents?); we were all overwhelmed by a Republican legislature that knows its Republican Governor won't veto any whacky thing that comes out of its doors and legislators making decisions on things well out of their experience levels.
Finally, yes, SD PP takes direction from MN/SD/ND PP and Kate was not at the top of that trio. In that light, how in the world can you "blame" Kate for "losses" that were not under her strategic control? She fought hard when we needed someone there but there's no one who can win at a legislature that refuses to play by the rules, such as was the procedures during the Task Farce on Abortion, now wafting its way to maybe another million dollars in legal fees for this small, rural state that has better things to think about and spend its money on than legal fictions.
SD Task Farce on Abortion: Everyone lost.
Laura Ross @ 1:16 pm
As I was saying, let's not forget in the 2009 session what these bills, now laws, cost us in real dollars, liberties and faith in women.
Finally, as you know SD PP is part of PP MN/ND/SD. Kate Looby was not ED of the trio and took her directions as required. She did her job well and then some. That said, this long, ongoing battle is not between Planned Parenthood and Everyone Else. The thousands of women and men who access SD PP's services for a multitude of services also weighed in on the Informed Consent Act, the ballot measures, the sonogram bill. Where their voices could make a difference - on the ballot which the Gov. could not veto, they did. When political power is concentrated as is in the SD Legislature and its Executive Branch those who argue for reason and still lose the battle have lost far less than those who ignore the will of the people.
This session, let's skip all this. We have real needs to tend to.
Amy @ 4:14 pm
Hey Laura Ross, thanks for your verbosity; "Methinks the lady doth protest too much." BTW, a Supreme Court decision cannot be "incredulous." I am incredulous that with your obvious verbal repartee skills you did not know that.
Thanks for playin!
Amy @ 4:25 pm
BTW, any of you Pro-Life supports of VC want to see what Miss Laura Ross is all about, feel free to peruse her website at http://www.womenrun.org/ocean/host.php?page=0
Good insight into what the other "camp" is up to.
Laura Ross @ 5:48 pm
Dear Amy,
I am not of the "other camp", such bifurcations are what you play off and keep reason from entering the fray. I ain't playin'. I posted to keep DooHickey from shredding the record even further than normal (as with invoking MLK; c'mon, its your "camp" that kep the Indian Health Care Improvement Act from being passed despite dire need - since when is hypocrisy oral argument?) and continuing the World v Planned Parenthood hype.
Yes, the majority opinion in Gonzales v Carhart was incredulous, purporting in part the same faulty rhetoric as used in the SD Task Farce on Abortion. It was a sad day, indeed.
btw, yes, please send donations. Its hard keeping up with the wacky wing of the Republican Party.
You aren't from SD, are you?
Steve @ 7:06 pm
Ross - I was going to give you a thoughtful answer until you called me DooHickey. I have discovered most pro-abortion zealots as yourself are about 12 in maturity. I figured you were older.
I will reply to this comment you made… "This session, let's skip all this. We have real needs to tend to."
No chance on that Ross. Have you ever thought that the pro-life majority in this state actually believes the scientists who say the unborn feel pain at 8 weeks and therefore abortion is viewed as the dismembering of a living human being without anesthesia?
Has no one ever briefed you on the cost of abortion to society? The costs to fight it are minimal. How much would you raise and spend to save your dying child? No price is too high. Nonsense to the idea that this takes the legislators valuable time.
Your comment only helps us remember that indeed there is nothing that trumps the protection of innocent human life in terms of legislative priorities. Your comment emboldens us to dust off and not let up on doing something about the plight of the unborn.
PS - Amy is from SD. It looks like you are from Minnesota.
Laura Ross @ 7:29 pm
It's well you let us know you weren't giving a thoughtful response from the start, I guess. Reverend Hickey.
You didn't say, though, why you opposed the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. First Nations peoples within SD borders suffer some of the greatest incidents of rape and sexual assault in the country, the highest levels of infant mortality, the lowest levels of life expectancy and lowest levels of wages, yet you believed it more important that a rewording of the Hyde Amendment go into the IHCIA, known as the Vitter Amendment, and knowing it would throw a wrench into First Nations' treaty guaranteed health care. IHS facilities don't do abortion anyway, as if their sovereignty were any of your business.
If that's not zealotry, what is?
I'm from South Dakota. And you?
Steve @ 8:03 pm
I've been here 15 years. There are natives on every reservation in this state who will tell you I've fought alongside them and funneled large amounts of money to support them.
For some reason your comments make me want to fight for the unborn even more. The racism of PP and the exploitation of women is blatant. They care more about sex criminals than rape victims. Nothing good comes from a bad root.
Nikole @ 10:22 pm
It is never more obvious that people have no clue about you, Steve, as to when they start making ridiculous comments like Laura Ross said about you standing in the way of improving Indian Health Care. She has no idea what ties you (or many in the church) have to natives. And I say this as a step-mother to two native children.
You are spewing from the mouth LR.
Amy @ 8:02 am
Ummm - Laura thanks for throwing that smoke bomb about IHS to try to divert the conversation from your embarrassing misuse of your skills defending Katie and trying to defend your defense of killing of the innocents. NICE. Point the finger of blame at pro-lifers and accuse us of harming the native peoples. Too bad you didn't hear Pastor Steve's call for help this weekend for two native leaders going through dire straight, which is not an isolated incident, but the norm for him.
You sounded like such an ignorant jerk when you brought up the native peoples and the indian health act and you also just proved you know NOTHING about Pastor Steve's work among the native people of South Dakota.
And by the way, Laura, my dad is an IHS doctor.
Nice attempt at demonizing us. Didn't work.