VoteYesForLife.com Event Held in Rapid City

VoteYesForLife.com, the group supporting South Dakota's pro-life measure, Initiated Measure 11, held an event at their Rapid City office Monday evening.

The first speaker of the evening was Rachel Reiman, a young lady who chose life for her child, and again chose life when doctors told her that her child's condition was "incompatible with life" because her daughter's cerebral cortex never formed.

Bishop Blaise Cupich of the Diocese of Rapid City said he supposed that many present in the audience had been captivated by the wonder of life and had developed a great appreciation for it. He acknowledged that there may also be some who have not achieved this appreciation, and hoped that they could be reached.



He said we commonly accept that the state uses it's power to protect the rights of each citizen, especially those least able to do so for themselves. He said the groups who are voiceless and powerless like orphans and the disabled are protected by our society. But when it comes to protecting the unborn, there is a gap in the system.

We already have laws to protect other voiceless people; let's not forget the baby, he said.

Cupich said the measure has exceptions, and he has struggled with that. Cupich said he wanted to protect everyone. He said the lives of some children are not less valuable than others. At the same time, he emphasized that we had tried to pass a law that did this, and failed. He said polling indicated that the voters of South Dakota wanted to end abortion as birth control and would support a measure that had exceptions.

Cupich said the ultimate goal is to protect all life, but it's also valid to take a gradualist approach that recognizes the "perfect" is not the enemy of the "good." He said this is morally acceptable, and the church has always had a position that accepted this gradualist approach.

Cupich said he knew there are people of good conscience who don't support this law because it doesn't protect everyone, but it can limit some of the evil aspects of the current situation.

He said it will protect most children, and raise up in us an awareness of the importance of life.

Cupich also addressed the view held by some that pro-lifers are imposing their morals on others, while many of those same people maintain that they are not in turn imposing their morality on others. Society cannot escape what is essentially a moral dilemma: when does human life deserve legal protection from the state?

He said it is fundamentally a moral issue, no matter what side you're on. It is a debate about when the moral claims of human life begin.

Cupich said our efforts have to be done in a way that promotes the common good. He said we have a good argument, and it is reasonable, and we have a belief that the good people of South Dakota will join us.

He told a story of visiting a premature infant in the hospital, and how putting a human face on such situations can make a difference in how people look at such children, even ones that modern medicine tells us probably will not have a chance at a long life.

Cupich encouraged people to put a human face on the argument, because that is really what we are talking about in this debate: human beings.

Leslee Unruh, the head of VoteYesForlife.com, spoke next, and after some brief comments invited Dr. Glenn Ridder of Physicians for Life to come up and speak to some of the medical questions being asked during the campaign.



Ridder said that physicians do not have to be worried about the medical provisions of this bill. He said they were written to protect the women involved.



Regarding the rape and incest provisions, he said too many perpetrators are going free, and too many women are not getting the help they need. This law, he said, will help them get the assistance they need through the reporting process, and ensure more of these perpetrators are removed from the streets.

Another issue which has arisen recently are fetal anomalies, from minor to major, that have occurred in human beings forever. Most usually resolve themselves in a miscarriage at early stages. Some are successfully born and many live for a long time.

Ridder said he has had some children with Down syndrome in his practice, and one is grown, holding down a job and living on his own.

Another is 16 years old now and is a junior in high school and is on the football team.

Ridder also addressed the Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome which has been the subject of a controversial ad being run by those opposing Initiated Measure 11. He said it is a rare condition. He said this condition has a number of options for treatment and that many times both children can be saved. But, he said, even though sometimes one or even both children die as a result of that procedure not being successful, "that is not an abortion." He emphasized that the treatment is intended to save lives, not take lives. As such, it clearly does not fall under practices prohibited by Initiated Measure 11, which are intended to take the life of the unborn child.

Ridder emphasized that this is a human life we're dealing with. He said that in a recent court decision a judge acknowledged the unborn child was a "whole, separate, unique" human being.

"The State's evidence suggests that the biological sense in which the embryo or fetus is whole, separate, unique and living should be clear in context to a physician" - Judge Raymond W. Gruender, in South Dakota's recent informed consent decision

Dr. Patti Giebink, treasurer for VoteYesForLife.com spoke next. Giebink is a former abortionist who has come to realize that abortion ends human lives. She appealed to those present for financial help in getting this message of life out to the people of South Dakota.

She said she was the last South Dakota doctor to do abortions for Planned Parenthood. She said she now knows the truth, and she is on the side of Initiated Measure 11.

Stacey Wollman of the Care Net Pregnancy Resource Center also made an appearance. Centers like Care Net help pregnant women and their children by providing ultrasounds, referrals, diapers, baby clothes, parental counseling and many other services.



Lots of VoteYesForLife.com gear was on hand and going out, including yard signs, bumper stickers, t-shirts, buttons, balloons, bracelets and more.