(2/4/2006)

Abortion, Sex Education Hot Topics at Crackerbarrel

Personal disagreements also heat up discussion

By Bob Ellis

Dakota Voice

Sparks flew at the crackerbarrel in Rapid City this morning. The room was full, with standing room only, and a panel of legislators on hand to inform the voters of what is going on in the legislature right now.

Senator Bill Napoli (R-Rapid City) was one of the featured speakers at the gathering today. He spoke to the crowded room at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology about how the state is losing some $13,557,559 in funding from the federal government. He said the state is replacing that loss from the general fund, to the tune of about $12,510,404. Napoli said this indicates the legislature is "very reluctant to cut government."

Napoli, who is on the subcommittee looking at the solvency of the state fair, said that the event has been suffering from decreasing attendance over the last decade. He said the fair will be $500,000 in debt before it opens this year, but "the one thing that has really been successful over the last 10 years has been the beer tent."

Napoli concluded his presentation with a statement about "personalities," as he put it. "We've got legislators that really do a good job, and they're really trying to do the right thing. They're decent, hard-working people. But we've got legislators that stand on the floor, and they pound their fists, and they say 'Arrest those DWI guys. I want tools to put people in jail.' And then you'll see them down at the bar, drunk out of their mind two or three days a week. And you'll see these guys standing up, pounding their drum, saying, 'I've had enough of this alcoholism and I've had enough of these DWIs, I've had enough of these people breaking the law.’ And then you'll see them at these events two or three nights a week, drunk, and drive home drunk." Napoli said he wanted people to know that it's happening, and he wanted people to get to know their legislators. He concluded that he didn't want to see legislators "blow a bunch of smoke up your skirt during the election” and then not practice what they preach. Napoli's statement was received with a great deal of applause.

A little while later, Rep. Tom Hennies (R-Rapid City) came to the podium and said, "I carried most of the DUI bills on the House side, and I'm offended if Senator Napoli is talking about me, because it's absolutely not true, and I want to make that very clear." Napoli later said that he was not talking about Hennies when he gave that example.

Rep. Ed McLaughlin (R-Rapid City) spoke about the JAIL amendment, calling it "one of the most serious issues you'll be voting on in November." McLaughlin said he expected all legislators, regardless of party, to be unanimous against JAIL, which will be Amendment E on the ballot. He encouraged voters to educate themselves about the measure, because it could affect many in public service.

Rep. Alan Hanks (R-Rapid City) spoke in favor of HB 1134, which strengthens the right to defend yourself with reasonable use of force. HB 1134 has passed the House 49-19 and is scheduled for a committee hearing in the Senate Feb. 6.

Hanks also expressed his disappointed that HB 1132 didn't make it out of committee before being killed. "It's absolutely insane," Hanks said, "in the state of South Dakota, that you can have somebody prosecuted and put in jail for raping a girl, and if she becomes pregnant, he still has his parental rights unless that girl goes out and asks the court to terminate his parental rights." Hanks stressed that this bill would only have affected those already convicted of rape or incest. "To me, that's absolutely asinine," Hanks concluded to the applause of the crowd. Rep. Elizabeth Krause (R-Rapid City) said during another question that, while she was not on the committee that killed the bill, she had supported it, and that it was her understanding that it was killed because there was no provision for a situation for the rape of a young male by an adult woman.

Senator Stan Adelstein (R-Rapid City) discussed the status of his sex education bill SB 196, stating that many elements of HB 1217, which clarifies the meaning of "abstinence," have now been incorporated into his bill. However, Rep. Krause said that HB 1217, which will be going to the floor for a vote this week, is still very different from Senator Adelstein's bill.

A question was put to Senator Mac McCracken (R-Rapid City) about SB 1234 which would mandate mandatory kindergarten attendance. McCracken said that he had recently learned that about 95% of South Dakota children are already attending kindergarten, and in light of that, the need for SB 1234 might need to be reevaluated.

One lady asked an interesting question of Rep. Don Van Etten (R-Rapid City) regarding Van Etten's HB 1184 about the right of health care providers not to participate in services that violate their conscience, at one point referring to an allegation that in the 1600s, women who attended the labor of other women were called witches. After some initial confusion about what question actually was, Van Etten pointed out that the religious beliefs of health care providers are protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He also addressed the myth that people would be endangered by the bill, stating that patients are free to seek these services from providers who are willing to offer them. He further clarified that the bill deals only with elective procedures, not life saving medical care. He said this law has been in effect in Illinois since 2000 without any problems, and parts of it are already law in 45 states without any problems.

On this topic, Senator Adelstein said that if a doctor doesn’t want to dispense the medical services the patient is asking for, “they shouldn’t be in that practice, or if you break the law, you go to jail.”

“That was a parroting of the ACLU position,” responded Van Etten to what Adelstein had just said. He reiterated that the procedures Adelstein had spoke of could be handled by a different physician who had no conscience problem.

Adelstein responded that he was not a member of the ACLU and spoke vehemently that he did not support the ACLU. He said that his opinions were his own, and not from the ACLU.

Rep. Krause spoke to SB 1217 and abstinence education, stating that sex education hasn't been big issue in Rapid City because local educators have done a good job, but that it is a problem in Sioux Falls. She said that 4.75% of their current sex ed instruction touches on abstinence, but HB 1217 would boost that to 57%. It also protects local control and provides for parental input. Krause said it doesn't require any additional funding, and local districts can do away with sex ed completely if they want. Krause added that some of the sex ed material available says you can do anything short of sexual intercourse and that's still considered abstinence.

There was considerable discussion of sex education and HB 1194, which would prohibit school officials from dispensing abortion or family planning services to students. Rep. Mike Buckingham (R-Rapid City) said, “We have a DARE program. We educate kids as to why drugs are a problem. But we don’t supply them with clean needles in case they decide to. And we shouldn’t be doing the same thing with sex education.”

Legislators were asked about SB 1215 and which of them would support an abortion ban. Rep. Gordon Howe (R-Rapid City) went to the podium and stated that he would. He said, “We have two options: we can legislate moral law, or we can legislate immorality.” He said morality was the basis for all law.

Howe continued, “The number of abortions in South Dakota is the equivalent of eliminating the entire populations of New Underwood and Keystone. How would we respond to that as citizens of this state? It’s the equivalent of us eliminating the populations of Hill City and Hermosa. In South Dakota there is something in excess of 160 school districts with a little over 9300 kindergarten students. How would we respond if we knew that every week, week in and week out, in South Dakota we were systematically killing one third of those kindergarten kids in that district. I bet we’d stand up and say something about it. I bet we’d do something about it.” He encouraged people to contact the governor’s office and ask him to sign the legislation when it comes to him this year.

The high attendance rate for Rapid City crackerbarrels appears to be something of an exception.  Rep. Gordon Pederson (R-Wall) says he's been told Sioux Falls crackerbarrel attendance is much less than in Rapid City. This analysis was echoed by a visiting legislator from North Dakota who said their crackerbarrels are sparsely attended, as well.