Hundreds rally on abortion

By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer | Friday, March 10, 2006

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RAPID CITY - Opponents of South Dakota’s nearly-total ban on abortion began what is expected to be a protest-filled political season early Thursday afternoon in downtown Rapid City, as speakers condemned the controversial HB1215 signed Monday by Gov. Mike Rounds as a step back in time for women’s rights.

But as rally participants threatened legal action, a public referendum and an all-out campaign against politicians who supported the bill, an equally rambunctious group of counterdemonstrators sang songs, flashed anti-abortion signs and praised Rounds and the state Legislature for defending the unborn.

It was a sign of rallies and counterrallies to come, as South Dakotans grapple with the vexing clash between defense of the unborn and the rights of the living.

Organizers of the protest against HB1215 — a legally fragile law that would allow abortions only when needed to save the life of a pregnant woman — registered 402 people to rally in front of the federal building. They waved signs and chanted abortion-rights slogans as speakers denounced a law that they consider to be both unconstitutional and unconscionable.

“We are free human beings,” Shery Bea Smith, a registered nurse from Nemo, said. “Unfortunately, we happen to be South Dakotans at this time.”

But Smith said the abortion ban would not withstand the coming challenge from people who support fundamental human liberties.

“We refuse to go back to the days when women were property,” she said. “We love life, and our lives are ours to define.”

Anti-abortion protesters argued that women can define their own lives but not the lives of their unborn children. Don Lefevre of Rapid City said opponents of HB1215 needed to realize that anti-abortion advocates would never accept abortion as simply a medical choice left to the pregnant woman.

“What the abortion people generally need to understand is that we really do believe those (the unborn) are people. So it would be ridiculous for us to say, ‘Well, that’s OK, choice is OK,’” Lefevre said. “If you really believe that’s a life, a person, then it would be the equivalent of saying my neighbor is a real inconvenience, so I can snuff out his life.”

As participants in the Rally Against the Abortion Ban chanted from the northwest and southwest corners of the intersection of St. Joseph and Ninth streets, supporters of the ban occupied the northeast and southeast corners.

Passing cars honked for their individual protest preference. An officer from the Rapid City Police Department monitored the generally well-behaved crowd from a squad car in the Wells Fargo Bank parking lot. And security personnel looked down from the roof of the Federal Building.

Jean French of Rapid City, an outspoken abortion opponent who helped organize the counterprotest, estimated that her side attracted about 550 people, based on a “rough curb count” and that there were about 350 opponents across the street. French said her group didn’t sign people in, however.

Michelle Trupiano of Planned Parenthood estimated the abortion-rights crowd at about 430 — 402 of whom registered — and said there were about half that many counter-demonstrators.

The totals were hard to estimate, because the groups were spread out and people came and went. But whatever the total, it was a scene likely to be repeated as opponents of HB1215 rally against the law and mount challenges against lawmakers who voted for the bill. State Sen. Stan Adelstein, R-Rapid City, opposed the bill and tried to amend it to make exceptions for rape and incest. Speaking to the abortion-rights rally, Adelstein said opponents of HB1215 would refer it to a public vote in November and make it difficult for lawmakers who supported it to get re-elected.

“We need to know who voted and how they voted. And we need to not only refer this bill and kill it, we need to vote them out,” he said. “I’m convinced that we have the majority of South Dakotans behind us.”

As Adelstein spoke, his opponent in the upcoming District 32 Republican primary stood across the street among abortion-ban supporters. Elli Schwiesow, who lost to Adelstein in the 2004 primary, said she was confident that HB1215 could win a referendum vote.

As for the impacts of the law on legislative races, Schwiesow said she expected them to be limited in number.

“I think one legislator is going to pay at the polls,” she said, referring to Adelstein.

Nearby, Mary Ellen Stewart of Rapid City said she was thinking of her three sons, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren as she stood in support of HB1215 and the unborn.

“My love for life brought me,” she said.

Opponents of the ban also said it was their love of life and individual liberty that brought them to the rally. Trupiano said it was one of 47 such events in 35 states.

“It was a great turnout,” she said. “It exceeded our expectations. We have a lot of people who said it was their first-ever political rally. They just decided it was the time to come out.”

French said she was pleased with the short-notice turnout by counterdemonstrators.

“Boy, God did a good job today,” she said, pledging to show up to defend HB1215 at future rallies. “If the truth needs to be spoken, we’ll be there.”

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com