My anger is ... unbelievable.

[reynardo]

South Dakota has one - repeat one - location where women can obtain abortions. To get an abortion, one must:

1) Speak to the doctor at the clinic to get a full idea of what is involved, then wait 72 hours to consider your choice. This is difficult enough as they can't get a local doctor. The current provider flys in on a weekly basis, only for the day that the procedure is performed, making it hard enough to get the required information first. Note that they don't allow patients to speak just to a nurse, despite the fact that a nurse with the appropriate training would be completely able to give the information in an proper manner.

2) Then attend a counselling at a crisis pregnancy center, also known as an anti-abortion center or a pro-life clinic.

Then and only then may the woman go to the clinic in Sioux Falls and get the abortion.

And the problem? None of the crisis pregnancy centers in South Dakota will give the counselling.

It's horribly sneaky. The legislation purpoted to make women give due and appropriate thought to their choice and to make sure they were given all the pro-life options available to them, in the hope that those who weren't entirely certain that they wanted an abortion would decide instead to have the baby.

Instead, it's given the pro-life clinics the ability to completely block the abortions, without the legislation actually doing that.

The article about it is here.

Comments

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

I forget the stats but basically a woman can't get access to abortion in about half the states because provision is so poor.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

I've certainly seen those stats too, although I'm having trouble finding them. I do know that the availability of abortion across the states drops dramatically the further south and the further into lower-income areas you go.

The following states have one clinic each:

Arkansas
Mississippi
North Dakota
South Dakota
Wyoming

And the requirements are so onerous!

I kept my own sanity a couple of years ago by sending encouraging postcards to one clinic in each state, thanking them for giving women a choice. It was heartbreaking to find so many states with only one - and I think that was only two states then. That it's five now makes my heart sink further.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

Add to that that 'normal' menstrual cycles are considered to be 28 days +- 7 days (with individual 'normal' women showing variation of +-4 days from cycle to cycle), and it's not unheard of for women to have some bleeding during their early pregnancy, so it's well within possibility for a woman not to have skipped a period until her second cycle of pregnancy... By which time, a woman with a 35 day regular cycle is considered to be 70 days pregnant (as it's normal to calculate from the last time you knew you weren't pregnant - the beginning of your previous cycle).

10 weeks, when there are additional restrictions on accessing abortion after 12 weeks. And the hypothetical woman in question would be thinking she's only 5 weeks, as remember she hasn't missed a cycle...

Then you add in getting time off of work, getting the money together, organising transport, and then add a waiting period on top of it.

[duniazade.livejournal.com]

Yes! They had tried the same type of tactic here in France for a few years after the abortion law was passed. Later they had to back off somewhat, but I'm afraid it will be a lot more difficult for women in the US - especially for poor women, of course.

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

As long as there is no national consensus on when life begins, problems like this will continue to arise.

[fbs-fic.livejournal.com]

I'll refrain from going on a long rant, but this is yet another reason that I hate living in a country that was formed on the basis of separation of church and state, and yet can't seem to create laws without religious bias. Barf.

Never mind the women's rights issues.

Ridiculous.

If men could get pregnant, there wouldn't even be a controversy.

[littleblueghost.livejournal.com]

That is truly terrible.

We have it lucky (relatively) here. Even if only by having access to the morning after pill.

Women and families (as sometimes it is not just the women that are effected by the choice) should have access to unbiased counselling, pre and post as it is recognised that abortion does have a long term impact on mental and social health.