Out of stater's again spending big bucks to fight South Dakota abortion legislation

Do we all remember that the vast majority of dollars spent in 2006 to fight the abortion ban came from out of staters like Sen. Barack Obama? Here we go again.  

Feedback is trickling back to me that South Dakotan's for Unhealthy Families is hard at work trying to develop their misinformation campaign to fight the abortion legislation the voters in 06 said they wanted - a bill that had rape and incest exceptions. I scratched out the word "South Dakotans" because, according to the return address label, a "survey group" from the southwest (SW like Arizona or Nevada, not SW South Dakota) is paying South Dakota voters $200 to participate in "focus groups" to talk about the abortion referendum. One lady said she got $400.

The "focus groups" took place last Wednesday, March 12, at the Plaza Holiday Inn in Rapid City and were promoted as a ladies round table discussion groups. Eight ladies from the Rapid City area, Spearfish and Wall were invited. The lady leading the group said she was neutral and was hired to moderate by a survey group. Of course, the part about this being about the abortion referendum wasn't stated up front in the invitation. This wasn't disclosed until after the group members were fed a meal.

After the meal, group members were taken to a room outfitted with a camera and a couple mircophones and told what they said might be used (as in quoted somewhere, by whom they were not told). They were first asked 16 questions about the subject, then given a copy of the proposed bill and asked to write down their feelings about it and discuss them. The women were told to not discuss the meeting with the men in the hallway afterward as the men were arriving to have their group meeting next.

Interesting to me was the final question the women were asked - would they object if the bill was written by an attorney from New Jersey? It's good to know this is one of the ways Unhealthy Families plans to undermine this legislation. Yes, there was a lawyer from New Jersey involved. And, there were lawyers from all over South Dakota, and legislators from our state as well. And, South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long and his staff were the central players in drafting this bill. The reason we didn't start collecting signatures last summer was because the drafting process for this bill was so thorough.