SOUTH DAKOTA -- YES ON
REFERRED LAW 6
Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act
What is
Priests for Life doing to assist the South Dakota ballot initiative?
This November, South Dakotans
will be the first Americans since 1972 to vote on whether abortion should be
legal.
On March 6, 2006, South Dakota
Governor Mike Rounds signed into law HB 1215, the Women’s Life and Health
Protection Act. The measure would outlaw abortion in the state, although
it would permit a doctor to perform procedures to save the life of a pregnant
mother while also making reasonable medical efforts to save the life of her
unborn baby.
Although the legislation passed by overwhelming margins in the South Dakota
House (50-18) and Senate (23-12), pro-abortion forces gathered the 16,728
signatures needed to force a referendum on the bill. They want to make
people think that the law is objectionable because it does not have an exception
for rape. They ignore the fact that abortion neither cures rape nor heals its
trauma. (Click here for more
information.) Moreover, the abortion supporters would oppose this
legislation even if it did have a rape exception.
The measure, called Referred Law 6 on the November ballot, found its origins in
the December 2005 Report of the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion.
The 17-member Task Force was created by the state legislature to study the
impact of abortion on South Dakota women and families since the Roe v. Wade
decision.
Click here to see the Task
Force report in PDF format.
Conducting four days of hearings with both pro-abortion and pro-life experts and
reviewing testimony from 1,940 women who have had abortions, the Task Force
concluded that “the most fundamental assertions made by the U.S. Supreme Court
in Roe v. Wade… upon which its decision was based, are now known to be
false or inaccurate.” Further, the Report found that the state of South
Dakota “has both the right and the unqualified duty to protect every human being
and their personal intrinsic rights, including the pregnant mother’s natural
intrinsic right to her relationship with her child, and the child’s intrinsic
right to life.”
The campaign to pass Referred Law 6 is in full swing. There has been no
more important abortion initiative or referendum in over 30 years; indeed, this
election will be historic. We strongly urge you to become educated on
Referred Law 6 and support it however you can. For more information
on the campaign, along with the full texts of the law and the Task Force Report,
please visit
www.VoteYesForLife.com.
Click here to see the specific activities
that Priests for Life promotes in regard to voting.
On
Thursday night September 21, top national pro-life leaders joined many pro-life
activists on a conference call to discuss the urgent need to help South Dakota
protect its abortion ban, and to detail the sweeping national implications of
the upcoming vote.
Among those participating were
Janet Folger, President of Faith2Action
Judie Brown, President of American Life League
Gianna Jessen, abortion survivor
Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life
Molly White, Director of Redeemed for Life
Jim Sedlak, Executive Director of STOPP International
The entire call was recorded and is available at the following link:
www.EmergencySouthDakotaBriefing.com
All we ask is that you help spread the word to other pro-life leaders across
America so they can listen in on this vital discussion!
What is Priests for Life doing to assist the South
Dakota ballot initiative?
Priests for Life has made the public aware of this
initiative by means of our television and radio interviews, letters, and emails.
In particular, our educational efforts all year round regarding why abortion is
not a solution to rape are helping pro-life people in the state argue against
one of the principal objections of the pro-aborts.
Priests for Life continues to keep the priests of South Dakota – and all the
priests across the country – aware of the urgency of ending abortion, and
encourages the efforts of the various dioceses in this regard.
Our overall educational activity about elections
(www.PoliticalResponsibility.com), of course, ties into this ballot initiative
and assists people to know how to generate more votes.
Recently, Fr. Frank took part in the special conference call of pro-life leaders
regarding the South Dakota ballot initiative.
Additional Reading:
Considerations Regarding the South Dakota Abortion
Bill Referendum [part 1]
and [part 2] --
Bishop Blase J. Cupich, S.T.D., Bishop of Rapid City, SD.
More Legislation
