Abortion clinic planning proceeds

By Bill Harlan, Journal Staff Writer | Saturday, April 01, 2006

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An unintended effect of South Dakota’s new law banning most abortions might be the creation of the first abortion clinic in western South Dakota in 20 years.

The clinic would be on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

“It’s about choice,” Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecelia Fire Thunder told a small group of reporters Friday at tribal headquarters in Pine Ridge Village.

Fire Thunder suggested a reservation abortion clinic more than a week ago, saying tribal sovereignty would make it exempt from South Dakota’s new law banning all abortions except to save the life of the mother.

The new state abortion ban, which has no exemptions for rape or incest, is not yet in effect, and it is almost certain to face a challenge in court and a statewide referendum in November.

The law also has galvanized supporters of abortion rights, such as Fire Thunder, who once worked as a licensed practical nurse in a Southern California abortion clinic. “I prayed about that,” Fire Thunder said. She concluded that terminating a pregnancy was “between a woman and God.” She also has counseled Indian women about birth control.

On Friday, speaking slowly and quietly and fighting back tears, Fire Thunder explained why she decided to go public with an idea she has considered for years. “I was looking at my statistics about sexual assault and domestic violence, and it made me cry,” she said.

Fire Thunder said the tribe’s sovereignty would make a reservation clinic exempt from the state abortion ban, but she emphasized that the clinic would not be funded or run by the tribe. “This is my own position,” she said. “This is not the position of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.” She is proposing a private, nonprofit clinic funded by donations and fees.

Fire Thunder said she was working on the proposal on her own time, mostly after hours. But she also said her position as the elected president of a tribe is useful. “If I, as a private citizen, had made this statement, no one would have heard it,” she said. “That’s why this morning, as I was driving in, I said, ‘Good girl! This is my responsibility as a female human being.’”

Women on the Pine Ridge reservation and in other rural communities in western South Dakota often don’t have access to birth-control services or to emergency contraception, Fire Thunder said.

Alcohol and drug abuse, especially methamphetamines, also increase the number of rapes and sexual assaults on the reservation, she said. And many of those assaults aren’t reported for days, if at all. “By then, it’s too late,” Fire Thunder said. “We are creating children under the influence of drugs and alcohol.”

Fire Thunder believes a reservation women’s clinic could provide counseling, too, and education and birth- control services

The clinic could serve women in the entire region, Indian and non-Indian. “The reality is, this is not an Indian issue,” she said. “It’s an all- color issue.”

Fire Thunder said she had received more than 600 e-mails offering encouragement and even donations for a clinic. The messages came from throughout the nation and the world, from as far away as Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.

Fire Thunder’s clinic suggestion has been widely circulated on Internet sites. She got a “Wings of Justice” award from BuzzFlash.com, for example, but not all of her reviews were positive. A column by Jill Stanek on the conservative WorldNetDaily.com was headlined “Sioux tribe plans to scalp its own.”

The legality of a reservation abortion clinic that contradicts a state law is not clear-cut. University of South Dakota law professor Frank Pommersheim, an expert in Indian law, calls the idea “potentially workable,” but questions about issues such as licensing could complicate the plan.

A national Planned Parenthood group called the “Post-Roe Task Force” also has studied whether reservation abortion clinics might be exempt from state law. “It’s very exciting that someone like Cecelia Fire Thunder would step forward and make a proposal,” task force member Sarah Stoesz said Friday. “I’m very interested in sitting down and talking with her.”

Stoesz also is chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood for Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. She said Planned Parenthood clinics in Sioux Falls and Rapid City would remain open, but the Rapid City clinic does not offer abortions. A reservation clinic that offered that service, she said, is “a great idea.”

Fire Thunder already has consulted attorneys about the clinic. Next week, she will meet with a “working group” of volunteers to discuss other issues, including fundraising.

South Dakota’s abortion ban might never become law. The court battles and the referendum campaign will be hard fought. But Fire Thunder said she would continue working to establish a women’s clinic no matter what the courts or voters decide. “We need something closer than Sioux Falls,” she said. The Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls is the only abortion provider in South Dakota.

The late Dr. Ben Munson of Rapid City, who retired in 1986, was the last abortion provider in the West River region. Pro-life groups picketed Munson’s office for weeks at a time, but picketers might pose less of a disruption at a reservation clinic, Fire Thunder said. Protesters would have to follow tribal laws. If they didn’t, she said, “We have the power to keep them off the reservation.”

Fire Thunder said she also had been in contact with leaders of other tribes in South Dakota and other states. The National Organization for Women has invited her to address a meeting. Fire Thunder believes a Pine Ridge women’s clinic could have a national impact. “I’m challenging the women in America to stand up,” she said.

Contact Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com