South Dakota update

State Sen. Bill Napoli (R-Rapid City) gave this shocking description of the circumstances under which he thinks abortion should still be permissible when he was on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: "A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."

How sick is that?! Wrong, sick and wrong! First off, that he'd come up with such an answer. And second, that he suggests that if the woman is promiscuous or even just not a virgin, if she's not religious, and if the rape isn't horrifically heinous, it's somehow less of a bad thing that she's raped... and somehow, perhaps, more her fault? And third, that he implies by this statement that a woman who chooses to engage in sexual relations before marriage, as is her right according to modern American mores, is inherently worth less than a woman who does not. There is even more than that that is WRONG! about his statement, but I really don't care to analyze it further. It is clear that he obviously does not think of women as even generally being socially, politically, or spiritually equal to men... Not that he is a man himself because he is not. No, he is merely male. A real man would never, even in their most inebriated state, say what he said while sober and on television... making a horse's ass of himself in front of America and the world. If he's your representative and you're outraged, I do suggest you write or call his office and tell him so. Wouldn't be a bad idea to make this statement come back to haunt him on Election Day too, while you're at it!

Similar bans are currently being considered in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia. If you live in any of those states and care about your freedom or the freedom of the women of your state, I do suggest you go to NARAL's website, prochoiceaction.org, and write your officials. And even if you don't live in those states, it wouldn't be a bad idea to remind your elected officials (including your governor!) that you don't want any of these crazy ideas becoming reality in your state. You can find their contact info by typing in "[your state] State Legislature" into any decent search engine and puttering about the official site 'til you find e-mail contact info.

Most importantly, do not "forget" to vote in November! It is very important that everyone who is informed vote in the mid-term election (I qualify with "informed" because people who aren't informed tend to rubber-stamp whoever the incumbent is whether or not they've done a "good" job). If we can end the far-right's control of the House and Senate in 2006, we might stand a chance over the next 2 years until we can elect another President.

Looking forward to hearing other people's thoughts on this...