The South Dakota Senate voted to pass bill HB 1217, which requires a 72 hour wait period for women seeking an abortion. The bill is being sent to anti choice Republican Governor Dennis Duggard to sign. The 72 hour wait would be the longest in the country with roughly half the states having a 24 hour waiting period.

For the record, I do not have a problem with that implementation. In my opinion, it would help women make better decisions for them, and lessen the chance of them being coerced. 72 hours is sufficient time to ponder all your options, discuss them with anyone, if anyone, you need to, and seek any information you may need, to come to a decision.

If my coercer would have had to wait 72 hours before my abortion procedure, the outcome may have been very different. That does not make me anti abortion, it makes me pro choice. A choice I, and many other women have at one time or another, not had.

Another part of the bill is a requirement of pre abortion counseling. This is where South Dakota government loses me on this bill. Not that I think pre abortion counseling in itself is a bad thing. If I had my way the whole world would be in therapy, so I am not suggesting that counseling before one if not the biggest decisions in your life is a bad thing.

It is where the counseling must take place that is the problem. The pre abortion counseling must be done at on of the state approved “health centers”, none of which are Planned Parenthood. It is another back door tactic to use “crisis pregnancy centers” with an agenda to sway a woman away from an abortion, essentially coercing her decision. It is because of this I urge you to write to the Governor of South Dakota and tell him you are against going forward with this bill. I have included a link for you below.

I also wanted to include a list of the states who already implement a 24 hour waiting period.

They are:

Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin