By Bob Ellis
Dakota Voice
RAPID CITY--Citizens concerned about life came out from across the state of South Dakota tonight for a pro-life rally at the Ramkota Hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota. The evening featured keynote speaker Janet Folger, who is an author, radio host and national pro-life leader.
The event was emceed by South Dakota Dist. 30 Representative Gordon Howie.
The event was opened with a prayer from Pastor Wes Labrier of the Union Center Community Baptist Church.
A video was shown which told attendees about the abortion ban petition for which signatures are currently being taken. The state of South Dakota requires 16,776 signatures, but the video said 18,000 are being sought. Volunteers were out in several cities across South Dakota today going door-to-door getting signatures.
It pointed out that this is not the same law brought before the voters in 2006, stating this one is “what you, the people of South Dakota demanded.” This referenced polls taken in 2006 which showed that 70 percent of South Dakotans supported an abortion ban that had exceptions for the life of the mother, the health of the mother, and for cases of rape and incest. This petition contains all those exceptions.
The video encouraged all who are concerned about life to contact VoteYesForLife.com for a petition package, seek to obtain at least 15 signatures, and to be a leader in their churches. The presentation also mentioned that VoteYesForLife.com is headquartered in Sioux Falls in a former abortion facility where 36,000 babies died.
Several state pro-life leaders were present and recognized by Howie: South Dakota House Majority Leader Rep. Larry Rhoden (Union Center), Assistant House Majority Leader Rep. Joel Dykstra (who is also a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate this year), Dale Bartscher of the South Dakota Family Policy Council, and for the leadership of the Catholic Diocese in South Dakota.
VoteYesForLife.com Treasurer Patti Giebink then spoke briefly. Giebink was once an abortion doctor with Planned Parenthood before experiencing a change of heart and mind, and joining the pro-life community.
Giebink said she wanted to address some comments she had heard in the past week on television about rape. Giebink said rape is a horrible experience that is physically and emotionally brutal. She said the contention of some that the woman who is a victim of rape should not receive a medical examination after being raped “borders on the absurd.”
A trained OB/GYN doctor, Giebink said she has been involved in helping women after a rape, and that it is important that doctors examine the woman for injuries and test for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). She said that doctors always collect evidence after a rape as a matter of procedure, so the allegations by some that the abortion petition’s requirement that DNA evidence be collected when a woman says she’s been raped is nothing improper or exceptional.
Giebink said that she had participated as a doctor in several rape cases and had never heard a woman complain about the medical exam. On the contrary, the exam is necessary to gather evidence to capture and convict the rapist and bring him to justice for his crime.
Giebink closed her comments on a personal note, stating that, since she used to perform abortions, she can’t bring back the lives she’s ended, but she can work tirelessly to prevent any more lives from being lost.
Leslee Unruh, head of the Alpha Center in Sioux Falls and a board member of VoteYesForLife.com, introduced Janet Folger. Folger is founder and president of Faith2Action, which features a daily radio program heard across South Dakota and across the nation. She has appeared on national news shows many times, and has authored several books including True to Life, The Criminalization of Christianity and her latest: Truth to Go in 30 Seconds Flat.
Folger stated that what happened in 1973 was that “seven men in the Supreme Court decided to impose their morality on the nation,” stripping protections from the unborn that were already in place in most states.
To those who believe restricting abortions involves unwarranted government intervention, she quotes Thomas Jefferson who said, “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government."
Folger said that in criticizing the rape exception reporting requirements of the proposed law, abortion proponents are protecting rapists and putting young girls back into incest situations.
Concerning objections made by abortion proponents about the primacy of the doctor-patient relationship, Folger said, “The doctor-patient relationship argument is a sham.” She said that the woman seeking an abortion usually doesn’t see the doctor until she’s on the table for the abortion, and in some cases, may already be under anesthesia before the doctor enters the room.
“What a sham,” she said.
Folger pointed out that the pregnancy centers, not abortion centers, are the ones that really care about women.
“Look in the yellow pages and use this rule of thumb: If you see references to Visa and MasterCard, or money changes hands, you don’t have one that truly cares about women.” She said that pregnancy centers are the ones that help pregnant women with testing, baby bottles, diapers, baby sitting and many other goods and services—all free.
Referring to recent reports that Planned Parenthood will gladly take money earmarked to kill unborn minority children, Folger called the organization, “Klanned Parenthood.” She repeated the statement made by one Planned Parenthood office employee who, when the caller said we need fewer black babies in the world, said, “Understandable.”
“The rest of the world is watching,” she told those gathered tonight. “They expected you to give up. Yet they don’t realize we are not going away until children are protected again. Perseverance wins.”
She continued, “If you work in the abortion business, if you make a living killing children, you are now on notice that you will soon be looking for another job.”
Folger said that someday we would not only experience the Supreme Court decisions and political adulation, “Someday we will meet the children” that otherwise would have been killed in the womb.
“The tipping point is close,” Folger said. “Your purpose and destiny is before you.
“Someday our children and grandchildren will learn about what happened in 2008. They will have a question for us: ‘Where were you when they were killing babies?’”
Referring to the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, Folger concluded: “They picked this fight, but we are here to finish it.”
According to signs in the conference hall at the Ramkota, the theme of VoteYesForLife.com is “Making Things Right Again.”
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Saturday, March 15, 2008
Janet Folger Keynotes Pro-Life Rally in Rapid City
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