Time is short and we need your immediate assistance. HB1254, the revision to last year’s misguided CPC bill, passed the Senate committee today and is scheduled to be heard on the Senate floor tomorrow, Thursday February 23rd!
Please contact your Senators and ask that they vote against HB1254. South Dakotans have overwhelmingly and repeatedly rejected such intrusive measures at the ballot box and want their legislators to focus on pertinent issues.
You may call your Senators at 605-773-3821 to voice your opinion or email them using the following link:
http://legis.state.sd.us/email/LegislatorEmail.aspx
Don’t know your Senator? Find them here:
http://legis.state.sd.us/who/index.aspx
Key points to keep in mind about HB1254:
- HB1254 revisits the coercive mandated counseling women must endure from unlicensed, unregulated pregnancy centers prior to obtaining a legal abortion. The law, passed last year, was swiftly enjoined by the courts and remains under review. HB1254 revises the statute, but leaves the most egregious aspects of the law in place. Women in South Dakota would still face the longest delay in the nation and would still be required to go to nonmedical, ideological “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” for the purpose of dissuading women who seek abortion care from a physician.
- Just like the law passed last year, HB1254 is unconstitutional and far out of step with South Dakota voters.
- The State of South Dakota has spent the better part of the last fifteen years tied up in litigation around similar poorly crafted, unconstitutional laws, and it has cost South Dakota taxpayers over a half a million dollars in fees, not to mention thousands of attorney hours and state resources.
- This is yet another attempt at what South Dakotans have overwhelmingly rejected time after time at the ballot box: government intruding into personal decisions best made by a woman and her family.