A double shot at the pro-choice minority on the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion
The first was from Dr. Allen Unruh, who served on the task force:
There is much confusion regarding the South Dakota Legislative Task Force on Abortion. I would like to clarify the misinformation that has been disseminated by the media and the opposition. First, there was only ONE Task Force. Four people out of seventeen decided to appoint themselves to be the task force after they stormed out of the room when they lost the vote. They prepared their own report after the fact, and submitted it to the governor, all the South Dakota legislators, the state and local media, and the national media and probably most of all their friends and relatives on their e-mail list. Four people out of seventeen does not a task force make!
There was only ONE report. The South Dakota legislature made no provisions for a minority report and it is totally irrelevant. Can you think of any time in the history of the South Dakota legislature where 3-4 people who lose on an issue in committee take it upon themselves to rant and rave and decide they will circumvent the political process and send their report to everyone they can and the governor to sign. It is an insult to the political process. They love to quote the Constitution but their own conduct and report violates the very foundation of the Constitution which is REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. If they want to win, they need to elect the majority in the house and senate and governor who believe like them. That's the way the process works.
Read it all here. No punches pulled there, eh? After you've clicked and digested the article, continue on and and then go read the article from the publisher of the Dakota Voice Newspaper, Bob Ellis, on how the task force also looked at the issue of Sex Ed in our Schools:
The report says that the issue of sex education came up frequently throughout the testimony they heard and the subject was discussed considerably. The report also says that it is "clear that sexuality education and abortion are undoubtedly connected."
The task force report found that abstinence education is the basis for building a strategy to decrease unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STD)s. It also points out that South Dakota already has a campaign to educate young people to "Just Say No" to things like smoking and drugs.
And.....
However, the abortion task force points out in its report that it was not mandated to make recommendations about sex education, and it was not specified as an area of focus, so it was not considered directly germane to its mandate.
Read all about it here, but don't tell your parents.
Actually, the second part of this stuff is pretty scary to me, as the parent of six children. Aside from some basic information on "parts" and their "functions"(as in the biology of things), I'd prefer that they learn about the rest of the stuff (the moral values part) from my wife and I.
Just hearing the stuff that the Sioux Falls School District was dealing with just made me cringe. God knows I'm not a prude, but when I was in high school twenty or so years ago, they weren't talking about many of the things that the high school had in thier controversial curriculum.
I'm sure my wife and I will be able to figure out what to say when the time comes. Thank god I'm not letting my daughters date until they're 30.
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