ROE AT 35 SPEECH

Below are excerpts of the speech given by featured guest Sarah Stoesz, CEO of Planned Parenthood in South Dakota, during PPNT's Roe at 35: The Future of Choice event in Dallas, TX on January 22, 2008.

"What better place to be on this 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade than in Dallas, where it all began, and where it's so appropriate and important that we take time to reflect on our many accomplishments and challenges.  In the more than three decades since the Roe decision, we've made huge strides in protecting and strengthening the health and rights of women and families across the nation."

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"Part of the current politics of reproductive health is optimistic and uplifting because it represents human rights and freedom.  But another part represents something not so uplifting - the politics of division and polarization, and tonight I want to talk about the great electoral uprising that occurred in 2006 in South Dakota as a case study to help us understand how we might begin bridging one of our great national divisions. 

"I'm going to talk about how and why voters, in what is arguably one of the most conservative states in the nation, next to Texas of course, voted by a 12 point margin to overturn the most comprehensive abortion ban since Roe vs. Wade, and to examine what we can learn from the way this election was conducted and the stunning results it produced."

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"To provide a backdrop to this discussion, let's review a snapshot of the landscape in South Dakota: The state has just over 775,000 residents, the overwhelming majority of whom are conservative, with a mere 14% of the population considering themselves liberal.

"For decades, politics in the state of George McGovern have been solidly dominated by the Republican Party.  A Democrat has not been elected governor since 1978 and the state has not supported a Democratic presidential candidate for more than 40 years.  South Dakota voters supported George Bush by a virtually identical margin to his win here in Texas."

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"...Planned Parenthood is the sole provider of abortion care in the state (South Dakota) and until recently the sole voice in support of reproductive health. This means that we fly in doctors from Minnesota to care for women that no one else in the state is willing to help.  (Doctors fly) into South Dakota in the morning, and out in the evening.

"However the 2006 abortion ban quickly changed our perception of our political isolation because the day the ban passed, even before it was signed, our phones began to ring – and they didn't stop for months.  We were so accustomed to our political isolation that we were taken aback by the instant outpouring of angry emotion that we heard from around the world and the country, of course, but particularly from around South Dakota.

"Within hours after the ban was signed, we began hearing from and meeting with people from around the state.  They were strongly pressing their case that the ban was not representative of their values and that they, the people, wanted to overturn it.  People who supported us came forward and said 'We do not want you to litigate this ban -- we want you to let us and help us vote on it.'

"It was based on the energy from these shock waves and an internal poll showing that we had a tough but possible shot to win, that we made the decision not to litigate, but instead to bring the issue directly to the voters.

"So, we led the formation of the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families (SDCHF), a coalition with 14 co-chairs consisting of South Dakotans from all corners of the state, from both political parties, young and old, ministers, doctors, teachers, nurses, the leader of the largest Native American tribe and grassroots activists."

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"The campaign was not about conversion, which is the traditional way we approach the abortion discussion.  Instead, it was about a conversation.

"And because successful conversation is a mutual activity this meant that we, the pro-choice true believers, had to be able and willing to think and talk about abortion in a way that meant something not just to ourselves, but also to the opposition..."

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"This was hard for us to do, because it represented a major challenge to the 'my body, my choice' way we in the reproductive health movement have thought about ourselves, but speaking just for myself, I've finally, after 30 years in politics become able to fully internalize the truth that bridging a political divide doesn't mean that everyone else crosses over to our side; it really does mean that we need to find a way to build a bridge so we can meet in the middle.

"Meeting in the middle can be very threatening because it means that we have to leave some of our assumptions behind.  Obviously, what we didn't leave behind was our belief and commitment that any woman or family who has concluded for any reason that they must terminate a pregnancy should be able to do so in a safe, legal and respectful way."

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"As a result of the great abortion conversation of 2006, South Dakotans now see and publicly talk about abortion in shades of gray, rather than black and white; a complex moral decision rather than a set of moral absolutes.

"They were forced into a conversation about abortion that they did not seek, and they, the self-identified pro-life electorate of South Dakota, came out of it very different people.  In SD, people who self-identify as 'pro-life' voted to overturn an abortion ban, and they are the reason we won the election.  We all came to accept that people can believe themselves to be both pro-life and pro-choice, and THAT is how we achieved our 12 point victory.

"The conversation we had in South Dakota was difficult and painful, and no one wants to re-live it any time soon, but we all learned that it is a conversation we should not fear, but that rather, we should embrace it in all of its complexity, and should frame it in the experience of our lives and the lives of our neighbors."

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"In broadening our movement, we strengthened our protection of the fundamental promise of Roe, that reproductive rights are human rights and that these rights are inalienable and inherent to whom we are as Americans, and as people.  And in so doing we can also fully believe the truth that hangs on the banner outside of our Sioux Falls clinic -- 'these doors will stay open.'"

- Sarah Stoesz, President/CEO Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota

January 22, 2008