Tag Archives: State: South Dakota

World Net Daily: At the time, attorney Harold J. Cassidy called the decision of the full 8th Circuit Court of Appeals “a fabulous victory for the women of the state of South Dakota.” . . . Commenting on the decision, Steven H. Aden of the Alliance Defending Freedom said “a woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line.” “If Planned Parenthood truly cared about the well-being of women, it would not try to prevent them from being informed of the well-documented risk of suicide that accompanies abortion,” he said. “The 8th Circuit has done the right thing in upholding a reasonable law that protects the well-being of women by making sure that the truth is not hidden from them.”

Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty\: According to Landeen, the city has received offers from several organizations, including the Liberty Council, which has offered pro bono legal representation. Alliance Defending Freedom, the Liberty Institute and the American Center for Law and Justice have also contacted the city, he said.

Religion Clause Blog: By a unanimous vote, however, City Council last Monday chose instead to adopt no policy and remain in the position of defending its traditional informal invocation policy. It also agreed in an 8-2 vote that in June it will consider offers by outside organizations that have volunteered to help it with its legal defense if FFRF files suit.

Rapid City Journal: The vote means the city will continue to look at prayer as a tradition as it prepares for a potential lawsuit against the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a national nonprofit agency that has sent at least two letters to the city raising concerns about the practice . . . According to Landeen, the city has received offers from several organizations, including the Liberty Council, which has offered pro bono legal representation. Alliance Defending Freedom, the Liberty Institute and the American Center for Law and Justice have also contacted the city, he said.

AP: South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson says he now supports legalizing gay marriage.

Argus Leader: Planned Parenthood filed an amended complaint Monday in federal court in response to a change in South Dakota’s informed consent law, which would require some women to wait even longer before receiving an abortion.

LifeSiteNews: Bishop Paul Swain said the action of Avera Health Plans has created “public scandal,” because its practices are “inconsistent with Church teaching.

Reuters: South Dakota Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard on Friday signed into law a measure that excludes weekends and holidays from the state’s 72-hour waiting period for abortions, potentially making the wait the longest in the nation.

Reuters: South Dakota Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard on Friday signed into law a measure that excludes weekends and holidays from the state’s 72-hour waiting period for abortions, potentially making the wait the longest in the nation.

Rapid City Journal: Meade County Commissioners say they won’t be bullied when it comes to prayer before their meetings. The commission voted 4-1 Tuesday to begin their meetings with prayer.

Rapid City Journal: Father Nathan Sparks, a reverend at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, gave the invocation at Monday’s council meeting, opening with scripture and ending in Christ’s name. The prayer marked another week the city council continues its stand against the Freedom From Religion Foundation . . .

Argus Leader: A South Dakota Senate committee Wednesday approved an extension of what is already the nation’s longest waiting period for a woman to receive an abortion. Women seeking abortions in South Dakota currently must wait three days after seeing an abortion clinic doctor before they can have the procedure.

San Francisco Chronicle: A South Dakota Senate committee on Wednesday approved an extension of what is already the nation’s longest waiting period for a woman to receive an abortion.

World Net Daily: They’re targeting 12 key states: Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Alaska, Arkansas, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia. The strategy was profiled Monday by David Brody of CBN News. Brody said the groups – led by the American Renewal Project – are planning briefings for evangelical pastors, voter-registration drives and other events in an attempt “to restore American to its Judeo-Christian heritage.”

Rapid City Journal: The legal case against prayer at government meetings isn’t nearly as clear-cut as the Freedom From Religion Foundation would have Rapid City officials believe.

WorldNetDaily: Attorney Harold J. Cassidy called the decision of the full 8th Circuit Court of Appeals “a fabulous victory for the women of the state of South Dakota.” . . . Commenting on the decision, Steven H. Aden of the Alliance Defending Freedom said “a woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line.” “If Planned Parenthood truly cared about the well-being of women, it would not try to prevent them from being informed of the well-documented risk of suicide that accompanies abortion,” he said. “The 8th Circuit has done the right thing in upholding a reasonable law that protects the well-being of women by making sure that the truth is not hidden from them.” [more]

Keloland.com: City council meetings in Rapid City have started with a prayer for as long as anybody in the community can remember. But the practice is coming under attack from a group that says the prayers are unconstitutional.

Argus Leader: The Freedom From Religion Foundation has asked the Rapid City Council to stop having a local minister lead a prayer to start council meetings, a request that has not been well-received by city leaders.

Argus Leader: Adelstein tried for the third time in the past 11 years Tuesday to repeal South Dakota’s “alienation of affection” law, which allows individuals to sue a third party for breaking up their marriage.

It is here: SD Voice of Truth.

Christian Examiner: The full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling July 24 means that the last remaining contested provision of the state’s informed-consent law, passed in 2005, is constitutional. “A woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” said Steven H. Aden, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) senior counsel. “If Planned Parenthood truly cared about the well-being of women, it would not try to prevent them from being informed of the well-documented risk of suicide that accompanies abortion.” Planned Parenthood sued South Dakota over the law in 2006.

Rapid City Journal: The Center for Religious Expression, a Memphis, Tenn., based nonprofit, filed the lawsuit on Gavin’s behalf. The lawsuit names Acting President Duane Hrncir, Vice President of Student Affairs Patricia Mahon and Surbeck Center Director Stephanie Lindsley as defendants. The center’s chief counsel, Nate Kellum, said Gavin is not selling phones or credit cards and that being confined to a table infringes on his rights. “It is not conducive to his type of speech,” Kellum said. “They are classifying his speech as commercial speech, and it is not.”

LifeSiteNews: Planned Parenthood’s legal fight to overturn a South Dakota law that requires doctors to inform women about the risks of undergoing an abortion has cost the state’s taxpayers $377,735, according to Attorney General Marty Jackley.

Steve Aden at Townhall: In March 2011, South Dakota’s Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed the Abortion Informed Consent Statute into law. Although the constitutionality of the law was immediately challenged, and Planned Parenthood recoiled at the thought of mothers being informed of all the dangers abortion poses for them (in addition to the child), the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that all major provisions of the law can stand.

LifeNews: Harold J. Cassidy, a pro-life attorney who represented Leslee Unruh, president of the Alpha Center of Sioux Falls, and Stacy Wollman, president of Care Net of Rapid City — two pregnancy centers that provide abortion alternatives — sent LifeNews details about the decision. He called the decision “a fabulous victory for the women of the State of South Dakota.”

A woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line.

NECN (AP): U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier (SHRY’-ur) says the state can enforce provisions requiring that doctors who perform abortions must first assess women to determine if they have been coerced into getting abortions or are at risk of suffering psychological problems if they have an abortion. However . . .

LifeSiteNews: Last week, a citation for unlawful assembly against the pro-life advocacy group Missionaries to the Preborn was dismissed after legal advocates say a city ordinance was improperly invoked.

Daniel McConchie and Mary Harned at the Washington Times: The administration’s health care law permits a state to opt out of allowing health insurance plans that cover abortions to participate in the new health insurance exchanges within that state and thereby prohibit taxpayer money from subsidizing plans that cover abortions. South Dakota recently became the 15th state to enact such a law.

NECN: South Dakota’s year-old abortion law remains tied up in a court challenge, but a state Senate committee endorsed a bill Wednesday that would change some of its counseling requirements for women seeking an abortion.

Krystle Weeks at Life News: Clarke Forsythe and Mailee Smith of Americans United for Life recently penned an op-ed in The Washington Times regarding a hearing that will be taking place in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit on Planned Parenthood v. Rounds, a case disputing a South Dakota statute, which was enacted in 2005, that mandates all women receive information of the medical risks of an abortion.

Religion Clause: Wipf v. Hutterville Hutterian Bretheren, Inc., (SD Sup. Ct., Jan. 25, 2012) is the South Dakota Supreme Court’s second installment in a factional dispute in a South Dakota Hutterite colony, and one of the first cases to cite the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Hosanna-Tabor decision.

OneNewsNow.com: The South Dakota House has voted to recommend that school districts provide academic instruction on the Bible, brushing off concerns by some critics that the nonbinding resolution seeks to promote religious beliefs.

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at the TellADF Blog: A federal court has granted the motion of an Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney permitting two South Dakota pregnancy centers to intervene in defense of a new state law – already under attack from Planned Parenthood – that would ensure crucial protections for mothers and their preborn children.

Rapid City Journal: The lawyer for two South Dakota crisis pregnancy centers said their role in the upcoming legal battle over the state’s latest attempt to restrict abortions will be essential to defending an abortion counseling law.

LifeNews.com: Two pregnancy help centers will help defend South Dakota’s law that protects women from being coerced into an abortion. A federal court granted a motion, filed by Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney Harold Cassidy, that allows the two centers to intervene in defense of the law, which is under attack in Planned Parenthood v. Daugaard.

Two pregnancy help centers will help defend South Dakota’s law that protects women from being coerced into an abortion. A federal court granted a motion, filed by Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney Harold Cassidy . . .

Religion Clause: In Planned Parenthood Minnesota v. Daugaard, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148345 (D SD, Dec. 27, 2011), a South Dakota federal district court permitted two South Dakota crisis pregnancy centers to intervene as defendants in a lawsuit challenging on Establishment Clause and free speech grounds the 2011 changes to South Dakota’s informed consent abortion law.

The Republic: The promotional dollars are slot machine credits that casinos give away to entice people to play.

One News Now: “A woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” the attorney argues. “If Planned Parenthood truly cared about the well-being of women, it wouldn’t try to prevent them from being informed of the well-documented risks of depression and suicide that accompany abortion.”

LifeNews.com: “A woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” said ADF attorney Steve Aden. “If Planned Parenthood truly cared about the well-being of women, it would not try to prevent them from being informed of the well-documented risk of suicide that accompanies abortion.” “A child’s life is worth more than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” Aden said.” [more]

WorldNetDaily: “A woman’s right to make a fully informed choice is more important than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” said Steven H. Aden, a senior counsel for the ADF. “If Planned Parenthood truly cared about the well-being of women, it would not try to prevent them from being informed of the well-documented risk of suicide that accompanies abortion.”

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit Monday agreed to review the only remaining provision of South Dakota’s informed consent law that the court has not already upheld in a failing lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood. The provision requires women to be informed of abortion’s documented risk of suicide.

The Argus Leader | argusleader.com: A federal court said Monday it will hear arguments next month concerning a 2005 South Dakota law that requires a doctor to tell a woman seeking an abortion that she would face a higher risk of suicide by going through with the procedure. The hearing will be Jan. 9 . . .

Religion Clause: In Iron Wing v. Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, (SD Sup. Ct., Nov. 30, 2011), the South Dakota Supreme Court held that a lawsuit filed in 2008 by a victim of clergy sexual abuse committed over 40 years earlier is barred by the statute of limitations.

OneNewsNow.com: “Planned Parenthood and other proponents of death work diligently to restrict the information mothers have about abortion and the life within them,” explains Steven H. Aden, attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). “It was incredible for the lower court to have determined that the law cannot acknowledge that a pregnant woman has an existing relationship with that unborn human being because some human beings are somehow not persons.”

LifeSiteNews.com: Harold Cassidy, an attorney affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund, filed the appeal to the 8th Circuit on behalf of a group of pregnancy centers that successfully intervened in the suit to protect the interest of women . . . ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden said the court was right to uphold informing women of “an undisputed biological fact.” “A child’s life is worth more than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” said Aden. “Planned Parenthood and other proponents of death work diligently to restrict the information mothers have about abortion and the life within them.”

Baptist Press: “Planned Parenthood and other proponents of death work diligently to restrict the information mothers have about abortion and the life within them,” said Steven Aden, senior counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief backing the state law. “It was incredible for the lower court to have determined that the law cannot acknowledge that a ‘pregnant woman has an existing relationship with that unborn human being’ because some human beings are somehow not ‘persons.’”

The New American: Steven H. Aden of the Alliance Defense Fund, which had filed a brief in the case on behalf of a number of pro-life groups, noted that a “child’s life is worth more than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line. Planned Parenthood and other proponents of death work diligently to restrict the information mothers have about abortion and the life within them.” He added that it was “incredible for the lower court to have determined that the law cannot acknowledge that a ‘pregnant woman has an existing relationship with that unborn human being’ because some human beings are somehow not ‘persons.’ The 8th Circuit rightly determined that it’s perfectly constitutional to inform women of an undisputed biological fact.”

WorldNetDaily: “A child’s life is worth more than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” said Steve H. Aden, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Family Research Council, CareNet, Heartbeat International and the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. The key attorney on the case was Harold Cassidy, one of more than 2,000 lawyers in the ADF organization. “Planned Parenthood and other proponents of death work diligently to restrict the information mothers have about abortion and the life within them. It was incredible for the lower court to have determined that the law cannot acknowledge that a ‘pregnant woman has an existing relationship with that unborn human being’ because some human beings are somehow not ‘persons.’ The 8th Circuit rightly determined that it’s perfectly constitutional to inform women of an undisputed biological fact,” Aden said.

Read more: Abortionists ordered to follow disputed ‘informed consent’ law http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=340785#ixzz1XBbIehIW

LifeNews.com: “A child’s life is worth more than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden. “Planned Parenthood and other proponents of death work diligently to restrict the information mothers have about abortion and the life within them. It was incredible for the lower court to have determined that the law cannot acknowledge that a ‘pregnant woman has an existing relationship with that unborn human being’ because some human beings are somehow not ‘persons.’ The 8th Circuit rightly determined that it’s perfectly constitutional to inform women of an undisputed biological fact.”

Court reverses district judge, says women can be informed they have ‘an existing relationship’ with an ‘unborn human being’

For these reasons we reverse the judgment of the district court striking down the relationship advisories; affirm its ruling upholding the human being advisory approved in Rounds; and affirm its rulings upholding the general risk advisory and striking down the suicide advisory.

LifeNews.com: South Dakota officials have decided not to fight the injunction a judge put in place against a new pro-life law the legislature approved. Instead, they will fight a Planned Parenthood lawsuit on the law itself.

AP: South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said the state must decide whether to appeal the preliminary injunction, continue to argue the merits of the case, discuss a potential settlement or do nothing.

A judge in South Dakota issued a temporary injunction to halt enforcement of a new pro-life law in South Dakota that was scheduled to take effect tomorrow had it not been for a Planned Parenthood lawsuit.

Chet Brokaw at AP: The small sign outside the Alpha Center in Sioux Falls quietly announces a roster of available services: “Free pregnancy tests, abortion information, STD testing.”

Rapid City Journal: The Rapid Valley couple joins a growing number of South Dakotans staying away from a marriage license. Over a 30-year period, the number of marriages in South Dakota dropped by 33 percent from 8,800 marriages in 1980 to 5,887 marriages in 2009.

: The lawsuit charges that HB 1217, which passed the South Dakota legislature in March and is scheduled to go into effect on July 1, is unconstitutional because it requires a woman who is seeking an abortion to first prove that she has received so-called “counseling” from an unlicensed, unaccredited and unregulated crisis pregnancy center. Further, it imposes a 72-hour mandatory delay for an abortion after a woman’s initial consultation with her doctor and requires her doctor to obtain written proof from her that she sought counseling at a crisis pregnancy center. | Complaint

Deseret News: Although the country’s longest wait bill was signed nearly two months ago, none of the state’s pregnancy centers have stepped forward to register with the state as required by the law.

AP: “The National Labor Relations Board says it will move ahead with lawsuits seeking to invalidate state constitutional amendments in Arizona and South Dakota that require workers to hold secret ballot elections before a company can be unionized.”

“What’s different this year is not the raw number of anti-abortion bills, but the fact that many of the toughest, most substantive measures have a good chance of passage due to gains by conservative Republicans in last year’s legislative and gubernatorial elections.”

Argus Leader: The law divides South Dakotans over the usual fault lines on reproductive rights, this time by making counseling centers a mandatory stop for women considering an abortion . . . . But it takes South Dakota into new territory by requiring that a woman visit a crisis pregnancy center during the 72 hours.

Christianity Today: “Earlier this month, New York City passed a bill requiring centers to disclose whether they provide abortions or emergency contraception, make referrals to organizations that do, and if they have a licensed medical provider on site. The Alliance Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit against the city.”

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (DOO’-gahrd) has signed into law a bill requiring women to wait 72 hours before having an abortion. It’s the longest waiting period in the nation.

Argus Leader: Two Sioux Falls women who were legally married in Iowa were granted the right to use their married names today.

The Republic: Planned Parenthood says it will sue South Dakota if Gov. Dennis Daugaard signs an abortion bill passed by the Legislature.

Argus Leader: “The fund has become an issue as the Legislature debated a bill that would increase the waiting period for an abortion, and opponents questioned whether South Dakota could afford to pay for a legal challenge.”

“As a handful of key pro-life bills are fighting their way to passage on Capitol Hill, pro-life legislators countrywide have mounted a a multi-faceted attack on the abortion industry with a surge of pro-life bills on the state level. Here is a roundup of the latest.”

Argus Leader: “Gov. Dennis Daugaard is inclined to sign the bill that would require a 72-hour waiting period for an abortion, he said this morning. “I’m pro-life and I’m inclined to sign it at this stage,” he said.”

“The South Dakota Senate voted Wednesday to require women to wait 72 hours before they can have abortions and to submit to counseling about why they shouldn’t go through with the procedures.”

MSNBC: “A South Dakota bill to require all pregnant women seeking an abortion to undergo counseling and wait 72 hours has moved closer to becoming law.”

TPM: Another abortion bill up for vote in the South Dakota House of Representatives would require women to obtain consent from their doctors before having an abortion, after the doctor determines that the decision is “voluntary, uncoerced, and informed.”

LifeNews: “In a new interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Wednesday, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, says there should be no truce on social issues like abortion.”

Fox News: “House Bill 1171 would expand the legal definition of justifiable homicide in the state. Critics said the measure legalizes the killing of abortion providers by saying a homicide is permissible if committed by a person “while resisting an attempt to harm” an unborn fetus.”