By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The only Planned Parenthood facility in the state of South Dakota has chosen to close its doors rather than obey a new state law mandating that all women be told that abortion ends the life of a human being and increases a woman’s risk of physical and mental health problems.
Planned Parenthood has been fighting the new state law since 2005 but was ultimately defeated last week when the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law was constitutional and could go into effect on July 19.
The new law requires women to be told that:
• abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being;
• a pregnant woman has an existing relationship with this unborn human being and that the relationship enjoys protection under the United States Constitution and under the laws of South Dakota;
• That by having an abortion, her existing relationship and her existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminate.
Women must also be given a description of all known medical risks of the procedure including hemorrhage infection, premature births of subsequent pregnancies, and infertility. She must also be told about known mental health complications resulting from abortion such as depression and related psychological stress and the increased risk of suicide.
The measure requires women to sign a form stating that they received the information prior to undergoing the procedure. Abortion practitioners who don’t comply face losing their medical license, two years in prison and a possible medical malpractice lawsuit.
On Monday, the first day the measure took effect, pro-life protesters gathered at the Sioux Falls Planned Parenthood along with several women who had appointments at the facility. However, neither clinic staff nor an abortionist showed up.
“I think Planned Parenthood cannot figure out a way not to comply with the law,” said Dr. Allan Unruh, a pro-life leader in South Dakota who was at the facility on Monday.
“Time will tell if Planned Parenthood plans to re-open it’s doors, but as for now, the regular abortions were canceled today as the abortionist refused to show up,” he explained.
“We will see if any other abortionists plan to take the risks involved with full disclosure of what they do to women and their unborn children,” he added.
According to Dr. Unruh, Planned Parenthood attorneys were calling pro-life attorneys saying, “We don’t want to comply.”
“This is historic,” Dr. Unruh said. “For the first time in 35 years, Planned Parenthood has had to close its doors.”
Calls to the Planned Parenthood’s Sioux City facility were met with only an answering machine.
However, Sarah Stoesz, president of the regional Planned Parenthood office recently called the law “one more terrible, terrible barrier . . . “ and an “unprecedented interference in the doctor-patient relationship and unprecedented interference in a woman’s life.”
This measure was a major defeat for pro-abortion forces in the U.S., and one media watchdog organization questions why the story is receiving little or no attention by the mainstream media.
“To even a casual viewer, it would seem to be big news in the abortion fight that Planned Parenthood has decided to quit their work to avoid obeying these common sense laws, but so far only a few sources on the Internet are reporting this story,” wrote Warner Todd Huston for Newsbusters.
Perhaps it is because of the untenable position that Planned Parenthood is arguing, Huston suggests. “Why are they against a few words on a piece of paper? Why is it such an affront to their idea of “health care” to be sure and give their patients accurate information with which to make an informed decision?
“Obviously what PP is objecting to is that they won’t have free reign to disseminate their own ideologically skewed information to patients and this is why they’ve closed their office in South Dakota. How such a small gesture of reading a list of information to a patient could be such an impediment to proper health care is anyone’s guess.”
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