South Dakota Abortion Ban Draws Fiery Opposition

[blackcrowheart]

South Dakota Abortion Ban Draws Fiery Opposition from Native Americans


South Dakota Abortion Ban Draws Fiery Opposition from Native Americans

||

www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/28/1432205
<http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/28/1432205>



Cecilia Fire Thunder, President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South
Dakota, recently made waves when she said a clinic on the Pine Ridge
reservation could provide abortions if South Dakota's new abortion
ban goes into effect. The ban is set to go into effect July 1st. It
would prohibit all abortions except to save the life of the mother –
with no exceptions for rape or incest. [includes rush transcript]



Under the law doctors will face up to five years in prison and a five
thousand dollar fine for performing an abortion. Fire Thunder said
earlier last week she would "personally establish a Planned
Parenthood Clinic on my own land." She later said she would support a
clinic being set up on any reservation in South Dakota.

According to Fire Thunder, the state law would not apply to Indian lands
because of tribal sovereignty. In a press release Friday, Planned
Parenthood expressed gratitude, but said they didn't have the
resources to open a reservation clinic. South Dakota is home to 8
tribes, and has one of the largest Native American populations of any
state.
Currently only one clinic in the state performs abortions: the Planned
Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls at the extreme eastern part of the
state. Doctors from Minnesota come to the clinic eight days a month.
Native American women who live in the Western part of South Dakota must
either travel more than four hundred miles to Sioux Falls or to an area
of Nebraska, which lies almost 300 miles southeast of the Pine Ridge
reservation.
The South Dakota Campaign For Healthy Families is aiming to collect
enough signatures to bring the abortion question to a statewide
referendum in November. Both pro-choice and anti-abortion groups claim
they are ready to bring the issue to a vote.
Indian Country Today reported that if the law takes effect, Native
American women will be impacted in greater numbers than any other group.
According to national statistics, Native women are sexually assaulted at
a rate 3.5 times higher than all other racial groups.

* Charon Asetoyer, founder and executive director of the Native
American Women's Health Education Resource Center
<http://www.nativeshop.org/nawherc.html> , a grass-roots women's
health institute on the Yankton reservation in South Dakota. * Sarah
Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood
<http://www.ppmns.org/site/pp.asp?c=gwKTJaN0JyF&b=260351> Minnesota,
North Dakota, South Dakota.
Related Links:
South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families
<http://www.sdhealthyfamilies.org/>
Indian Country Today: South Dakota's Abortion Ban has Sweeping
Implications
<http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?feature=yes&id=1096412706>

[Okwes]

Sioux group asserts reservation sovereignty

Indian tribe challenges
abortion law with clinic
Sioux group asserts reservation sovereignty,
will offer procedure after South Dakota ban
Posted: April 1, 2006
5:00 p.m. Eastern
worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49549
<http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49549>


South Dakota's near-total ban on abortion, passed last month by the
state legislature, is being challenged by the leader of the Oglala Sioux
Tribe, who is asserting tribal sovereignty and proposing to bypass the
legislation by building an abortion clinic on the Pine Ridge
Reservation.

Cecelia Fire Thunder
Cecelia Fire Thunder <mailto:[e-mail]> , 59, a
former nurse and the tribe's first female president, told the Baltimore
Sun the recent ban was "an eye-opener."
"An Indian reservation is a sovereign nation, and we're going to take it
as far as we can to exercise our sovereignty," she said. "As Indian
women, we fight many battles. This is just another battle we have to
fight."
As WorldNetDaily reported
<http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49131> , South
Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds signed the highly restrictive anti-abortion bill
aimed ultimately at overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. The
legislation bans abortion in nearly every case and punishes doctors who
perform one with a $5,000 fine and five years in prison. The bill allows
abortion only in the event a mother's life is in danger, making no
exception for rape or incest.
Fire Thunder said it was the prohibition on abortion in cases of rape
that is behind her proposal to bring a "Planned Parenthood-type clinic"
onto the reservation. She is currently soliciting donations.
"People need to open up their eyes in this country. Women are being
raped at a tremendously high rate in this nation," she said. "In a
perfect world, you will report the rape, the police will respond, they
will take you to the emergency room. You will tell your story, you will
get emergency contraception. We don't live in a perfect world. In rural
America, that does not happen."
Fire Thunder is one of 16 co-leaders of a group gathering signatures on
petitions to place the abortion ban before the voters. "We're collecting
signatures like crazy," she told the Rapid City Journal. "I'm very
confident. We're not living in the 18th century."
Given the state's low population, only 16,728 signatures are needed to
place the referendum on the November ballot. South Dakota Planned
Parenthood, which operates the state's sole abortion clinic, has said it
will challenge the law in court.
Casino-style gambling, once restricted to Nevada and Atlantic City, has
become widespread in the U.S. through Indian gaming which operates with
very little oversight by the states. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
recognizes 561 tribal governments in the U.S., a significant number if
other tribes seek to use their sovereignty to circumvent any future
abortion bans.
Fire Thunder said wants the clinic to offer contraception and sex
education as well as abortions and sees the clinic serving all women,
not just those living on the reservation.
South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long admitted there's little the
state could do if Pine Ridge began offering abortions.
"Roe vs. Wade is a federal law," he said. "Pine Ridge is a reservation
that is under the jurisdiction of federal laws more than state laws."
But Long is insistent that Indian sovereignty only goes so far. Not just
anyone can get an abortion on the reservation, he said. The state's ban
would cover providing and receiving abortions if the provider and the
woman were both non-Indian.
Charon Asetoyer, director of the Native American Women's Health
Education Resource Center in Lake Andes, S.D., disputed Long's
interpretation of the law, saying she doesn't believe South Dakota can
prosecute someone who hasn't broken federal or tribal laws. Finding a
Native American doctor to perform abortions "can be done" without
problem, she said.
Still, Long questions how much support Fire Thunder will have for an
abortion clinic from tribal members. "The Oglalas are basically pretty
pro-life people, by and large," he said.
Charon Asetoyer, director of the Native American Women's Health
Education Resource Center in Lake Andes, S.D.
Asetoyer disagrees with Long's interpretation of the tribal relationship
and said she isn't sure the state could prosecute someone who is
breaking neither federal nor tribal laws. She said it should be no
problem finding a Native American doctor to perform abortions. "It can
be done," she said.
"We just want to make sure that something is done for women who make
that decision," said Fire Thunder. "All we can do is provide that to
them, no questions asked. It's their choice. It's between her and God
and that unborn baby. And I honor that."

[Okwes]

Pine Ridge rez Prez plans for clinic

by Cyn Collins

South Dakota women are not taking an abortion ban lying down. Bill
HB1215 is the only anti-abortion bill in the U.S. which contains no
exceptions for rape, incest or women’s health. This makes it far and
away the most extreme ban of 11 states proposing bans, said Sarah
Stoesz, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood
Minnesota, North Dakota & South Dakota.

A new coalition, South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families (SDCHF)
formed rapidly in response to Gov. Michael Rounds’ signing of the
abortion ban bill in early March. More than 600 people are working to
garner 16,728 petition signatures by June 19. Kate Looby, state director
of Planned Parenthood South Dakota said they received 1,200 signatures
after the first three days and people are “ecstatic to sign the
petition—people can’t sign the petition fast enough!”

Looby says the abortion ban is “so extreme and unrepresentative of the
people of South Dakota. It’s unconstitutional. People need access to
health care and information about reproductive services.” Stoesz said,
“I wish the people who are putting so much energy into banning abortion
would put equal energy into making contraception accessible to all
women. They would be far more effective at reducing abortion. It’s very
hard to get birth control if you don’t have health insurance.”

It’s likely the abortion ban will be put to voters on a November ballot.
Current polls show 57 percent of South Dakotans would vote against the
ban. If this occurs, the bill will be rescinded. If voters vote pro-ban,
Planned Parenthood will combat the proposed abortion ban all the way up
to the Supreme Court, where the outcome is uncertain because of a new
balance of power there on issues like Roe vs. Wade.

Among the 15 members of SDCHF are attorneys, doctors, state
representatives and legislators, students and coalition co-chair Cecilia
Fire Thunder, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of Pine Ridge, S.D.
Fire Thunder, the first woman president on the Pine Ridge reservation,
is known by many as being tenacious. Fire Thunder worked as a nurse in
women’s health care clinics for several years. During those years she
saw numerous victims of domestic violence and rape.

Now Fire Thunder proposes to put a family health clinic on her Pine
Ridge reservation land, to provide family planning education and
reproductive health services including abortion.

Fire Thunder plans to open the clinic regardless of whether the
anti-abortion ban goes into effect. Right now she’s focusing her efforts
on getting the petition signatures gathered. She has six lawyers working
on the legalities of opening a clinic. As a sovereign nation under
federal rather than state jurisdiction, having a clinic that can provide
abortions appears feasible.

Fire Thunder made international news when she told Tim Giago, president
of Native American Journalists Foundation, Inc., “To me, it is now a
question of sovereignty. I will personally establish a clinic on my own
land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where
the state of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.”

During our interview she said she already had been planning a family
health clinic—the ban gave her more incentive. “It’s a response to the
ban on abortions and particularly for women who have been raped. There’s
no education on family planning on the Pine Ridge rez. As a president of
my nation, I have to say, glaringly missing is a really good place to
come to learn about choices.”

Fire Thunder refers to the large number of unreported rapes on
reservations as a “quiet crisis.” Half of the 38,000 enrolled members of
the tribe are 18 and under. “So we have a high population of
childbearing women.” She estimated as many as 80 percent of rapes go
unreported on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The SDCHF website confirms a
majority of rape cases go unreported and most women don’t seek immediate
medical attention. The U.S. Department of Justice reports 63 percent of
completed rapes and 74 percent of attempted sexual assaults against
females were not reported to the police. According to SDCHF’s website, a
study of acquaintance rape survivors indicated that 97 percent informed
at least one close confidant, while only 28 percent informed the police.
SDCHF said the rate of rape in South Dakota has increased by 24 percent
since 2000, with 336 rape offences reported in 2004.

Karen Artichoker, management team director of Cangleska, Inc., a Pine
Ridge domestic violence and sexual abuse center, said they saw 580 women
last year, and helped several thousand more via advocacy. She said that
seven years ago, according to criminal investigators and the Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA), an average of 35 rapes per month were reported on
each of three South Dakota reservations: Rosebud, Cheyenne River and
Pine Ridge. Artichoker said while law enforcement officials say they’ve
only received a few calls reporting rape in the last year, there are
many more that go unreported. “In our exerience as Indian women working
in this shelter, we hear it over and over and over. We informally ask,
by a show of hands, and see that our area matches the national
statistics—one out of three women have been raped—and we’re asked by
various women here, ‘Don’t you think that’s low?’”

Why are fewer rapes being reported? Artichoker gave a few reasons.
“There’s retaliation. There’s low prosecution. The Federal Government
prosecutes the crime. We have the authority but not the capacity. We
have sentencing restrictions. Anywhere else, the criminal would get 15
years in prison. They only get six months here. You have to relive the
trauma repeatedly with no repercussions.”

The Pine Ridge reservation population is small and many people are
related to each other. Artichoker noted there’s more of a stigma
attached to reporting marital rape or rape by people in the family or
extended family. For example, at the shelter Artichoker has heard,
“Three cousins raped me while I was pregnant.” She said, “People will
say, ‘It’s your relative,’ or ... ‘maybe she was drinking ...’”

Access is a major problem as well. Artichoker noted poverty prevents
women from obtaining services because of the long drives and expense.
“We hear women say they’d get an abortion if they could.” Looby noted
access is a major problem as well. Women have to drive over six hours to
Sioux Falls. “We have some funding to help with travel expenses because
of philanthropy from donors. We’re not a Title 10 provider so there are
no federal family planning funds for us.” She said if someone can’t
afford an abortion, “we’re not going to turn anyone away.”

Compounding these existing obstacles is the correlation between violence
and women’s addiction to drugs and alcohol. Artichoker said, “There are
a number of women that have been serially raped and develop addictions
as a result. A lifetime of victimization can lead to alcoholism, making
it difficult to participate in a criminal justice system, to show up for
court a number of times.”

Bearing the child of a rapist impacts family dynamics. Artichoker and
the staff have seen this frequently at the shelter. “Some women say, ‘My
mother says she would raise the child if it were her. I wanted an
abortion. I’ve been alienated from my family because I can’t stand to
look at the face that looks like the rapist.’”

The nearest treatment for a rape victim is 150 miles away in Rapid City.
Fire Thunder noted the victim might have to wait overnight and into the
next day to be seen by a doctor who may administer emergency
contraception, known as a morning after pill. It is not a medical
abortion, it’s a medication used to prevent pregnancy. By the time she
receives it, it may have lost its efficacy.

Fire Thunder said people living in cities and towns have better and
faster access to health care services for victims of rape, including the
morning after pill. “These things don’t happen in a rural community like
ours. There are women who are raped who have no recompense or recourse.
Rural communities don’t have the services cities do. What people don’t
understand is, these things don’t just happen in other parts of the
world; it’s right here in our backyard.”

The clinic would be open to anyone, Fire Thunder said. It would be
frequented the most by clients from Eastern Wyoming, Nebraska and
Western South Dakota. Pine Ridge and nearby Rosebud reservation are two
of the poorest counties in the United States. What if people cannot
afford an abortion? “We are a very poor community. We’ll provide
services whether you can afford them or not,” Fire Thunder responded.

Naturally, when you build a family planning clinic, not only will the
people seeking services come, but also the protesters. Fire Thunder’s
response to this is firm: “Protestors can protest outside our borders.
If they’re within our borders, they have to follow our laws. We have the
right to exclude them.”

Fire Thunder is working on improving law enforcement. They need to
address the problems of “drugs, alcohol and especially meth
amphetamines—with long-term use of meth, sexual activity increases.
There’s more sexual assault as a result. We’re looking at issues of
increased sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.”

Other reservations may follow suit. Fire Thunder is excited about the
possibilities of inspiring and working with tribes across the nation
facing similar difficulties and potential loss of the right to choose.
She said 99 percent of the responses to her Yahoo site, from around the
world, have been positive. “It was my responsibility to open discussion
and move forward. The abortion ban is unconstitutional. I intend to take
the lead in upholding the Constitution. My heart, body, mind, spirit and
land are responsible to stepping up to the plate for all women’s
rights,” Fire Thunder said.