Picking up steam in South Dakota

The Sioux Falls diocese installed Bishop Paul Swain in a magnificent ceremony yesterday, a little less than two weeks before the momentous vote on the abortion referendum in South Dakota. Good timing, because the battle over that life protection law is continuing to fire up, and voters will remember most what they hear closest to the election.

They heard a clear, bold and direct defense of human life and dignity in Bishop Swain’s homily.

“I’m proud to say that the first vote I will cast as a South Dakotan will be yes for Referred Law 6,” Swain said, to applause and a standing ovation.

As you know from reading InForum, that’s the “Women’s Health and Human Life Protection Law” that stands as the frontline in the pro-lfe movement in this country.

“This law is not perfect legislation, but it will better respect and protect the vulnerable,” Swain said.

He also said he would vote yes on Constitutional Amendment C. Approval of Amendment C would amend the South Dakota Constitution to recognize marriages between only a man and a woman.

Swain said he was not judging or demeaning anyone by doing so but preserving the common good and encouraging family life.

Good reminder of what to answer next time you hear the ‘judging’ or ‘demeaning’ argument.

In Masses the new bishop will celebrate across his diocese in the next couple of weeks, this message should penetrate the layers of distorted advertising and fear mongering by Planned Parenthood and NARAL to sway voters against Referred Law 6.

There’s another voice piercing that abortion movement’s campaign in South Dakota.

A former abortion practitioner at the state’s only abortion facility in Sioux Falls says she supports Referred Law 6, the state’s abortion ban. Patti Giebink, M.D., now an obstetrician-gynecologist, appears in a new ad sponsored by Vote Yes for Life, the pro-life group urging support for the measure.
Giebink formerly did abortions at the Planned Parenthood abortion facility, which now relies on out of state abortion practitioners because no South Dakota physician will do abortions.

“I would go to Planned Parenthood and I would do abortions where I would be ending a life of a baby,” Giebink says in the new commercial. “And I think this is the time to ban abortion on demand in our state.”

Dr. Giebink says the law will protect both babies before birth and women as well and says she doesn’t think abortions are needed given the kind of help women can receive nowadays.

“I don’t think it’s necessary. I think its time has passed,” she said.

That’s what the South Dakota legislature decided last February. And they’ve got all the evidence voters need to see why.