Tennessee Guerilla Women: States Jump on South Dakota Bandwagon

Monday, March 06, 2006

States Jump on South Dakota Bandwagon

The Governor of South Dakota signed the bill banning abortion today. Meanwhile, Tennessee lawmakers are voting on a similarly draconian measure today. States that are jumping on the South Dakota bandwagon include Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky.

The South Dakota law "would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion unless the procedure was necessary to save the woman's life. It would make no exception for cases of rape or incest. Planned Parenthood, which operates the state's only abortion clinic, in Sioux Falls, has pledged to challenge the measure in court."

In a related story, a woman in NAMPA, Idaho couldn't take it anymore and ran her car into an anti-abortion rally.

NAMPA, Idaho (AP) -- A woman drove her car into an anti-abortion rally outside of a Planned Parenthood, protesting what she called "vulgar" photos of an aborted fetus.

The incident happened at a local doctor's office where a Planned Parenthood clinic had recently been established. The clinic, which operates out of the office one day a month, does not perform abortions but does offer free birth control and emergency contraception.

Gail Mower, 52, of Nampa, on Friday drove her car onto the sidewalk and into the crowd of demonstrators after she became concerned over one protester's sign that depicted a "gruesome" picture of an aborted fetus, she told the Idaho Press-Tribune.

Mower said she wanted to park her vehicle in front of the sign to block it from the view of passing school children. She ended up running over the protester's foot, wedging it between the tire and the sign. The demonstrator was not injured.

Police said Mower had called police earlier in the day to complain about the "graphic and obscene nature of the sign" and wanted it removed. Since the sign had not been removed, she decided to take matters into her own hands, Mowers told investigators.