As reproductive rights rise in importance after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, voters in red states should not be taken for granted as pro-life.
A summer poll by South Dakota News Watch suggested that South Dakota voters aren't rigidly pro-life, like current Governor Noem, who has argued on national television that a ten-year-old rape victim should be forced to bear the children of her attacker.
And untold stories about abortion are now being shared.
Reporting for the Argus Leader, Annie Todd reports in 'That young girl was me' Rep. Linda Duba shares abortion story during rally:
Rep. Linda Duba (D-Sioux Falls) shared her abortion story for the first time in public during a reproductive justice rally organized by the South Dakota Democratic Party in Sioux Falls on Sunday.
Standing on a stage and speaking to a crowd of people dressed in green — the international symbol for abortion access — at Fawick Park, Duba told the story of a young college girl in the winter of 1976 who found herself pregnant. Although abortion had been legal in the United States for nearly three years with the passage of Roe v. Wade, abortions were still not provided in South Dakota.
“She came from a family who was pretty strict. She was worried about what people would think of her if they found out that she was pregnant and that young girl was me,” Duba said.
Duba was one of five speakers, three of whom are running for office this November, who spoke about the importance of abortion access.
Across the county, abortion rights have become a rallying cry for democrats since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. Voters in Kansas rejected a ballot question that would’ve tightened abortion access for women in the state, according to the Associated Press.
Because of a 2005 trigger law, abortions in South Dakota are banned, even in cases of rape and incest.
Duba said that women today must travel out of state, similar like she had to do 47 year ago when she was a sophomore at South Dakota State University and went to Minneapolis on a Saturday for a 15-minute abortion procedure.
“It was probably one of the scariest times in my life and then I came back home and I never told a soul,” she said. . . .
Read the rest of the article at the Argus Leader.
United States Senate candidate Brian Bengs tweeted from the rally:
Abortion is health care. pic.twitter.com/zrhY1gAkjM
— Brian Bengs for U.S. Senate (@BrianBengs) September 25, 2022
Prior to the rally, the South Dakota Democratic party tweeted an important reminder:
See you this afternoon at 2 pm at Fawick Park in Sioux Falls, and remember to wear green! pic.twitter.com/0TWEoYqgLO
— SD Democratic Party (@SoDakDems) September 25, 2022
Photo: South Dakota Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state rep. Jamie Smith, D-ioux Falls, comforts Duba after she shared her story. Photo by Annie Todd for the Argus Leader.
Related posts:
- Abortion poll: Is South Dakota the next Kansas?
- Jamie Smith will focus on South Dakota and shake hands with your dog while he's at it
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