South Dakota

Last week, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed legislation forcing any woman seeking an abortion to wait three days and undergo counseling at an anti-choice "crisis pregnancy center."

South Dakota activists Allen Unruh and his wife Leslee have long been involved in seeking out outlaw abortion and Alan Colmes recently brought Allen Unruh onto his radio program to explain the need for this law.

It did not go well. 

Unruh kept insisting that 60% of all women who get an abortion are "coerced" into doing so and whenever Colmes pointed out that that was a false statistic, Unruh was reduced to citing a woman who was reportedly forced at gunpoint to get an abortion.  Colmes kept trying to point out that coercing women to do anything at gunpoint was already illegal, so a mandatory three-day waiting period and counseling was just an attempt to further restrict a woman's right to choose. 

Eventually, Unruh started claiming that Planned Parenthood routinely "coerced" woman into getting abortions, that their facilities had no trained medical personnel on staff, and did not conduct any sort of exam of patients seeking abortions  ... but then a registered nurse who worked at Planned Parenthood called in and told Unruh that he had no idea what he was talking about:

While the South Dakota state legislature announced today that it will shelve a radical bill that would open the door to legalizing the murder of doctors who perform abortions, the state is still weighing other legislation that would significantly curtail reproductive rights. NARAL Pro-Choice America says that South Dakota already has some of the most draconian laws on the books that constrain women’s access to reproductive health services, including biased counseling and 24 hour waiting periods, even though the state’s only clinic which offers abortion coverage has to fly in a doctor once a week to see patients. While voters twice rejected a comprehensive ban on abortion in the 2006 and 2008 referendums, the Republican-controlled legislature continues to create new burdens for women.

A measure passed by the State House Judiciary Committee would require women seeking an abortion to first visit a “pregnancy help center,” also known as a crisis pregnancy center (CPC), where they must inform women of “the risk factors” and “complications associated with abortion,” and “have a private interview to discuss her circumstances that may subject her decision to coercion.”

The legislation, introduced by Republican State Rep. Roger Hunt, says that such centers can be either “secular or faith based” and the bill only approves a center that does not “perform abortions and is not affiliated with any physician or entity that performs abortions, and does not now refer pregnant mothers for abortions, and has not referred any pregnant mother for abortions for the three-year period.”

A 2006 Congressional report found that such pregnancy centers frequently employ misleading and fallacious information to link abortion to breast cancer, infertility and other fertility problems, and severe psychological problems such as an increased chance of suicide. “The vast majority of the federally funded pregnancy resource centers contacted during the investigation provided information about the risks of abortion that was false or misleading,” according to the investigation, “In many cases, this information was grossly inaccurate or distorted.”

The National Abortion Federation also notes that such centers are mostly staffed by volunteers whose “main qualifications are a commitment to Christianity and anti-choice beliefs,” rather than medical professionals, and “many CPCs are connected with religious organizations, but few disclose that fact in their advertising.” And a report by The Daily Beast looked into the propaganda tools and medically-unsound practices commonplace at such pregnancy centers.

But if State Rep. Hurt gets his way, South Dakota may force women looking to terminate their pregnancy to first gain the approval of the staff of such biased centers, on top of an existing 24 hour waiting period. Since a doctor that provides abortion procedures is only available in the entire state just once a week, this bill would gravely endanger the already-limited access women have to reproductive services.

While perusing the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission's website, I came across this new piece that trots out that standard right-wing claims that health care reform legislation would kill both your baby and your grandparents which was topped off by this suspicious quote attributed to Karl Marx:

Remember, Karl Marx once said, "First you socialize medicine and everything else follows like night follows day."

Now I am going to make a bold claim that this quote is false and that Marx never said it - and I am comfortable making that claim because a quick Google search turns up a mere five results, all of which appear to stem from this piece called "Socialized Medicine – Talking Points" written by Dr. Allen Unruh:

There’s always free cheese in a mousetrap. Along with shekels come shackles.

As Reagan said, “Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it, and hell where they already have it.” He said, “If we socialized the Sahara desert, in two years we’d be importing sand.”

Karl Marx said, “First you socialize medicine and everything else follows like night follows day.”

Ben Franklin said, “He who would trade freedom for security will end up with neither.”

As Patrick Henry said, “Millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty are invincible against any force the enemy can rise against us.” The battle is not to the strong, it’s to the vigilant, the active, and the brave.”

Thomas Jefferson said, “Rebellion to tyranny is the natural manure of the tree of liberty.” William Penn said, “Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God.” Ignorance, apathy, and indifference pave the road to tyranny. To live free is a privilege. To die free is a duty and an obligation.

Remember to refer all your friends, and e mail lists to teapartysd.com to hear speakers at our latest rally on socialized medicine. Every American needs to be informed immediately on the threat to their health, their life and their freedom. America is indeed in the 11th hour and the decisions made with change the tide of human history and alter the destiny of mankind.

Anyway, I fully expect that this phony Marx quote will eventually start getting picked up by others on the Right and, in an effort to head that off, I hereby challenge Dr. Unruh or someone from the CADC , or anyone else for that matter, to verify that this statement was actually made by Karl Marx and to document where it came from. 

I don't expect that anyone will actually take up that challenge, but if they do and it can be shown that this quote is indeed real, I will gladly write a post admitting that I was wrong.  

If you believe that you can document this veracity of this quote, please contact us here and put the phrase "Karl Marx Quote" in the subject line.

Incidentally, the name Allen Unruh sounded familiar to me, but I couldn't recall why, but a quick search reminded me that he has been, for the last several years, deeply involved in South Dakota's efforts to institute an absolute ban on reproductive choice in the state:

Dr. Allen Unruh is a chiropractor in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is the co-founder of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, and served on the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion. He is a member of the Vote Yes For Life Campaign.

The Associated Press previews the likelihood of a “Swift Boat”-style campaign against Barack Obama, focused on race, religion, and patriotism—cruder versions of Cal Thomas’s recent article denying Obama’s Christianity. The AP mentions a so-called “Coalition Against Anti-Christian Rhetoric” (their website, registered anonymously, is now gone, but here’s a temporary cached version) that managed to air an ad on a South Dakota TV station featuring a turbaned Obama and a spliced speech, as the ad asked, “What kind of nation would Barack Obama want us to be?” (“Muslim Nation?” suggested text on the screen.) “It’s time for people of faith to stand against Barack Hussein Obama.”

Another group is raising money for a similar ad that asks, “Was he Muslim?” This effort is led by the creator of the infamous Willie Horton ad of 1988. "Maybe it doesn't matter if Obama were a Muslim back then but it does matter if he is not telling the truth about it now,” the unsubtle ad states.

Both these ads are being promoted by right-wing websites such as WorldNetDaily (which speculates whether Obama is a “Manchurian candidate”).