Empowering all women…No baby, we are never going back…..

Ok, listen up all you Goddesses out there…Let’s support our right to choose! It’s getting harder to have an abortion these days and guess what? It’s affecting our poorest sisters the most…Read on!

Remember in 2006 when South Dakota Republican Gov. Mike Rounds signed a bill that banned nearly all abortions in the state…I don’t think so…that was in direct conflict with the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade 1973 decision that legalized abortion.

Happily, shortly therefore, voters in the state overturned that decision….Thank-you!

NOW (National Organization of Women) supporting Roe vs. Wade

Ok so first the good news. Abortion is still legal and most women who have the money can get access. We love that.

The not so good news and where we need to pay attention….

Our poorest of poor including women living in South Dakota (which has one of the lowest wages in the nation) do NOT have easy access to abortion, nor can they afford it. The state has just one abortion provider, in Sioux Falls, who is open one day a week….Yeah, you heard me right, the clinic is only open one day a week!

That’s not good brothers and sisters! We gotta change this….Keep going…

Ever heard of the Hyde Amendment? Ok, this is one reason to vote Democratic this year and a way to help! (and I’m talking to myself too…)

All the Dem candidates are in favor of reversing the Amendment, which bars the Medicaid program from funding abortions for low-income women…No way baby, no more…

Here are more details as reported by World Changing…

“Over the years, the Hyde Amendment, which dates from 1976, has included exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and threats to the life or physical health of the woman; the current version does not include the physical health exemption. States are allowed to provide their own funds to pay for poor women’s abortions, but only a handful do so; elsewhere, poor women must scrape together funds that would otherwise have paid for food, clothing, or rent.”

Ok, so with a Democratic leadership, we can change this…Here’s more good news….

More from World Changing:

“Since the 1980s, a growing number of nonprofit abortion providers and women’s health funds have emerged to fill the care and funding gap. There are so many abortion funds, in fact, that they’ve organized as the National Network of Abortion Funds, providing access to monetary and other assistance in 42 of the 50 states.”

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!

“The Chicago Abortion Fund is one of the oldest and largest such funds. Last year, the fund gave out grants totaling more than $50,000 to 159 women, and is planning to distribute $63,000 in 2008.” World Changing

Ok, here’s another way we can help.

Let’s start supporting these groups. Right now, for example, the South Dakota Women’s Health Fund needs some serious love! They provide funds to help pay for abortions, as well as transportation, housing, and child care and they need donations. Click here for more info. Hats off to New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and many other states who have similar programs.

Final note: Equality and freedom of choice are incredibly eco-chic…Let’s keep it going!