Pro-life, Pro-choice South Dakota

Yesterday, I attended the Planned Parenthood of the Columbia-Willamette (PPCW) annual luncheon benefit. Excellent attendance. I found it interesting that unlike last year, politicans present weren’t recognized or given a chance to wave. I didn’t see as many there, either, although I’m not good at schmoozing so it’s not like I worked the entire room looking. I greatly appreciate politicians who show up when they aren’t running for anything. I noticed Ted Wheeler; his wife Katrina was a lead organizer of the event and has been a member of the PPCW Board for a couple of years. Ted greatly impressed me on the campaign trail last year. He’s done significant volunteer work over many years, and truly cares about both people and natural resources.

The luncheon keynote speaker was Sarah Stoesz. She was a leader in the successful campaign in South Dakota where voters overturned a complete ban on abortion in the state. The proponents of the ban had been hoping it would be litigated in court, leading to appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court and potential overthrow of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in 1973. Instead, pro-choice organizers in South Dakota decided, “We were no longer interested in playing on their turf, of fighting in court. We chose to trust the people of South Dakota as sensible people, and took our message directly to them.”

Setting the scene:

No doctor in the state of South Dakota will work for Planned Parenthood (remember, here 95% of Planned Parenthood’s services are for non-surgical medical care like physical exams, screening, and contraception). In South Dakota, Planned Parenthood flies in doctors from St. Paul, Minnesota. More than half the electorate categorizes themselves as “conservative” or “moderate”; fewer than 25% view themselves as “liberal” or “progressive”. “We didn’t have much of a base to work from,” Susan said.

So they formed the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, which became a broad coalition of individuals and groups. “We asked the feminist national speakers to stay away, and they respected our request. We made it people in South Dakota talking with each other.”

“We learned how to talk about choice in a way that meant somthing not just to true believers[pro-choice activists], but the people of South Dakota. We trusted the people of South Dakota. We used a very disciplined message, aided by the best consultants and polls. We aimed at building bridges, rather than talking about being pro-choice or anti-choice. We talked about how the ban undermined the reasonable choices women and their families might want to make, keeping the focus on the lack of exceptions to the ban.”

Susan talked about Tiffany Campbell, a pro-life Republican who became a volunteer on the campaign after experiencing a complicated pregnancy. The twins she was carrying had a fatal syndrome where they were killing each other in-utero; only abortion of one could avoid both dying. She had to fly to Ohio to have the procedure. She joined the coalition to talk about how abortion is not black and white, but shades of gray. Susan Stoesz concluded:

“Our campaign was based on belief in the people of our community. We can trust one another. We now talk about abortion in shades of gray, the complex moral issue that it is. People can be pro-life, and pro-choice, at the same time.”

Them’s not fighting words. And that’s good.