My rant on Abortion in South Dakota

There is a Planned Parenthood location less than two miles from my home. Once every few weeks, there are two long-haired guys who look like bikers, standing outside with a gigantic poster of bloody fetuses. I get so angry every time I see these men, that my hands are shaking by the time I pull into my driveway. These men will never have a menstrual period, experience cramps or have PMS. They will never have to wear a patch or take the birth control pill. They will never experience a mammogram or a pelvic exam. They will never get pregnant. They will never experience what it feels like to squeeze out a baby from one of the tiniest orifices in the body after 30 hours of labor. YET, they have nothing better to do than stand around and harass young, poor women at the clinic.

It should be against the law for men to make laws that only affect women! It should be illegal for these men to assault innocent drivers-by with their disgusting photos of violence. How are these men any different than the Taliban who want women to be covered up in a burka, while they make all the decisions for us? When a man can get pregnant, then and only then should he be allowed to write or introduce any bill about womens reproductive rights!

It saddens me deeply that my sisters in South Dakota will now be forced to scrape together enough money to go out of state for an abortion. The abortion ban in that state will affect poor women the most. The poor will be the ones who have to struggle to find a solution to their unwanted pregnancy. They will be the ones who seek out illegal abortionists and die trying to help themselves. They are the ones who can ill afford another mouth to feed. Margaret Sanger would roll over in her grave if she could see how backward we still are in America after all these years. While we are forcing democracy down the collective throat of the world and allegedly trying to civilize the un-civilized in other countries, here in our own, we are taking a huge step backward to the days when women were dying from botched abortions.

I wrote a song in 1983 called "She wore a Red Carnation." The song was inspired by a true story I read about a woman who went to Mexico and got an illegal abortion. It was included on my first cd, Home Cookin' and later on a CD called Rock for Choice and it landed me on the illustrious Christian blacklist. Apparently starring in porn movies and being on the cover of Juggs was not enough to get me blacklisted, but when I came out as pro-choice, that was the real abomination! I performed the song at a rally in West Los Angeles in front of the Federal Building and I had the good luck to meet the woman who was the subject of my song. We both cried together as I explained how her story had inspired me so much. I didn't think I would ever live to see the day that free and equal access to abortion was not available to all women here in the liberated United States. But now I realize I went to bed last night and woke up in the middle ages.

It is so scary to witness the erosion of our civil rights as these so called Christian bullies cram their religious fear and evil down our unsuspecting throats. Who are these men who are so self righteous that they feel qualified to make decisions for the rest of us? I wanted to find out and so I watched a video on my pal Susie Brights blog. It's a video of the Senator from South Dakota describing his anti woman, anti abortion stance. When asked what it would take to get an abortion in South Dakota, Senator Bill Napoli almost started breathing heavy as he gave the following vivid details:

"A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl [would be] a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."

It is shocking to hear a man who will never be raped, (unless he goes to prison; one can only hope) or carry a child, speak about a rape victim in this way. Why does Mr. Napoli think it is anymore heinous to be savagely raped if one is a virgin? Any woman who endures a rape could be "messed up physically and psychologically." And what will Mr. Napoli do if it is his wife or daughter who is raped? Will he allow the abortion if his wife was only tied up and raped, but not sodomized? What if his daughter is raped but she isn't married? What constitutes a brutal rape? She is slapped around but not pistol whipped? She is penetrated only once, not twice? Who will judge whether the rape is brutal enough? How bad can you make sodomy? Senator Napoli seems to be a real expert on the subject. I am sure the good Senator will find a way to pay for his daughters' abortion in neighboring North Dakota. But unfortunately most of the citizens of South Dakota live on farms or in trailers and they dont have the luxury of a Senators' salary.

This is not a moral issue. This is economics. The only ones really affected by this law are the poor and destitute. Anyone with money can afford to fly out of state and visit the gynecologist of their choice. Just like the women who visit the planned parenthood here in oceanside because they cannot afford a private gynecologist, and have to drive past the gruesome signs of the biker protesters, the poor women of South Dakota will have to weave their way through the assholes in their State legislature to find free and equal access to health care. Is this what the founding fathers on Mt. Rushmore mean't by justice and equality for all? It's a sad day for women when men are still more equal than us in 2006. When will our liberators come here to set us free?