South Dakota Panel Continues to Study How to Reduce Abortions 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 22, 2005
Pierre, SD (LifeNews.com) — A panel authorized by the state legislature continues to study how to reduce the number of abortions in South Dakota. As it hears from both sides of the abortion debate, one lawyer suggested lawmakers have gone overboard with their desire to limit abortions in the state.
Stephanie Pochop of Gregory blasted a measure approved by the legislature this year that she claims tells women they aren’t able to make medical decisions on their own.
”If you wanted to say that about Native Americans and black Americans … everybody in the room would or they should gasp, and it’s not fair to do it to women,” Pochop told the panel.
She said the legislation would only cost taxpayers money because she claims the state will lose the court case and be forced to pay the attorney fees to abortion advocates.
State Sen. Brock Greenfield, a Republican who is also the director of South Dakota Right to Life, disagreed. He worries that many women are pressured into having abortions and that they don’t receive enough information about the risks and alternatives to abortion from abortion centers.
”Some women who are seeking to end their pregnancy are subject to pressures which result, among other things, in clouded judgment," he said, according to an AP report.
The panel also heard from Tamera Weis, a registered nurse from Sioux Falls, who agreed that women often have abortions without getting appropriate information beforehand from abortion practitioners.
”Women need all the facts, and a lot of times they don’t get all the facts,” she said, AP reported.
The panel heard from other abortion advocates and pro-life groups and has until December 1 to report its findings to the state legislature.
