<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
    xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/">

    <channel>
    
    <title>Planned Parenthood Advocate</title>
    <link>http://standupsd.com/index.php/site/index/</link>
    <description></description>
    <dc:language>en</dc:language>
    <dc:creator>KHill@ppmns.org</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights>Copyright 2008</dc:rights>
    <dc:date>2008-09-04T19:47:00-06:00</dc:date>
    <admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.pmachine.com/" />
    

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Anti&#45;Choice Ideology Finds a Foothold in McCain Campaign]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/anti_choice_ideology_finds_a_foothold_in_mccain_campaign/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/anti_choice_ideology_finds_a_foothold_in_mccain_campaign/#When:19:47:00Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[As a student at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, the home of this year&rsquo;s Republican National Convention, I&rsquo;ve heard my fair share about Sen. John McCain...read more HERE.
&#160;  by AnnaWeb CorrespondentPlanned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund As a student at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, the home of this year&rsquo;s Republican National Convention, I&rsquo;ve heard my fair share about Sen. John McCain these past few days &mdash; the good, the bad, and the ugly. From college&#45;sponsored RNC roundtable discussions to casual chatter about RNC visitors staying at students&rsquo; houses, the world of John McCain (and now Sarah Palin) is everywhere. It&rsquo;s interesting to find myself in the midst of all of this at the time of year when I&rsquo;m just returning to school and getting back to everything I do when I&rsquo;m here, like online blogging for Planned Parenthood. Interesting because anyone even remotely supportive of women&rsquo;s reproductive rights has a mouthful to say about the RNC, and I&rsquo;m no exception. McCain supports overturning Roe v. Wade and in February 2007, the Associated Press quoted McCain as saying, &quot;I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.&quot; McCain also supports abstinence&#45;only education that refuses sexually active young people medically&#45;accurate sex education. He has voted against comprehensive sex education bills and funding allocations for preventive health care to reduce unwanted pregnancies. On top of all this, John McCain holds fast to another of George Bush&rsquo;s old favorites, the global gag rule, which states that no U.S. family planning assistance funding can be given to organizations that provide abortion services, offer counseling and referral for abortion care, or advocate legal abortion access in their own countries &mdash; even if they do so with their own funds.. This policy has prevented countless women&rsquo;s and reproductive health organizations from helping local populations to their full potential. Let&rsquo;s just say that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, McCain&rsquo;s vice presidential choice, is no champion for reproductive rights either. She is supportive of abstinence&#45;only sex ed and is opposed to abortion &mdash; even in cases of rape and incest. Palin is, if anything, less &ldquo;progressive&rdquo; than McCain in this realm. The excitement of finding myself at the epicenter of the 2008 RNC becomes a lot more like bitterness when I reflect on the ideology towards reproductive rights that this year&rsquo;s Republican presidential candidates hold. Not only do I disagree with the McCain platform, but I think many of his concepts are downright illogical. Abstinence&#45;only education never has worked and never will; many STDs are on the rise among teens and unwanted pregnancies are still easy to come by. And legalized abortion, apart form being a personal choice issue, is far from being unnecessary. When I see that evidence that Republican policies towards reproductive rights work, I might revise my position. Until then, I can safely say that McCain is a disappointment.]]></description>
      <dc:subject>federal_elections, frontpage, Issues, Minnesota, Politics</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-09-04T19:47:00-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Young Men Oppose IM 11!]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/young_men_oppose_im_11/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/young_men_oppose_im_11/#When:18:12:00Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[A few weeks ago I got to sit down with Dirk, a young man who has been working against SD&#39;s abortion ban(s) since 2006. His video is a good way to ask you to get involved now....watch HERE 
  by Ashley B. &#45; Public Affairs Intern  A few weeks ago I got to sit down with Dirk, a young man who has been working against SD&#39;s abortion ban(s) since 2006.&#160; His video is a good way to ask you to get involved now.&#160; We&#39;re about 8 weeks out from the election and every single day and every single person is going to be critical from here on out.&#160; Please consider working with PPSD and/or the Campaign for Healthy Families.]]></description>
      <dc:subject>frontpage, Issues, podcast, South Dakota</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-09-04T18:12:00-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[McCain Selects Governor Palin as Running Mate]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/mccain_selects_governor_palin_as_vp_running_mate/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/mccain_selects_governor_palin_as_vp_running_mate/#When:14:54:00Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[Today, Senator John McCain announced his selection of a vice presidential candidate &#45; Governor Sarah Palin (AK)Click HERE to read more!&#160;]]></description>
      <dc:subject>federal_elections, frontpage, Politics, PressReleases</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-08-30T14:54:00-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Obama gets it, McCain doesn&#8217;t]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/obama_gets_it_mccain_doesnt/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/obama_gets_it_mccain_doesnt/#When:14:02:00Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[I hope that all of you got a chance to watch the now official, democratic nominee for President, Barack Obama deliver his historic speech...click HERE.
&#160;by KarinaWeb EditorPlanned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action FundI hope that all of you got a chance to watch the now official, democratic nominee for President, Barack Obama deliver his historic speech this past Thursday. (if not, here it is below)Earlier this summer, Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Obama&#45;&#45;&#45;we really feel that he is committed to working to advance the health and rights of women. This is in strong contrast to his opponent, John McCain, who is fervently anti&#45;choice and doesn&#39;t even want to focus on reducing the number of unintended pregnancies through practical solutions like comprehensive sex ed and funding for family planning to increase access to birth control and other contraceptives.&#160; To borrow a phrase from Obama&#39;s speech last night, John McCain just &quot;doesn&#39;t get it.&quot;Luckily, in Barack Obama, we have a candidate who DOES get it.&#160; And he demonstrated that in his speech with just one short sentence.&quot;We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.&quot;Obama gets it because he knows that we are never all going agree on the abortion issue.&#160; But he believes strongly that we can use common sense measures to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and thus avoid abortion bans and restrictions, while simultaneously retaining reproductive rights.&#160; If that&#39;s not a silver bullet, I don&#39;t know what is! &#160;But John McCain DOESN&#39;T get it. He&#39;d rather enact laws that insult women&#39;s intelligence and pick away at their rights. He&#39;d rather appoint judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade.&#160; He&#39;d rather cater to the extreme right and support inefficient programs like abstinence only education.&#160; And McCain thinks he can win over women voters by acting like a &quot;maverick&quot; and selecting a woman to be his VP. Too bad his VP selection, Sarah Palin, is also fervently anti&#45;choice. &#160;So if John McCain thinks he can get women&#39;s votes with his anti&#45;women record, he&#39;s got another thing coming. To quote Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund:&quot;A Woman Voting for John McCain Would be Like a Chicken Voting for Colonel Sanders&quot;I don&#39;t know about you, but I am one woman who is not about to let John McCain deep&#45;fry my rights.Show your support for electing Pro&#45;Choice president, Barack Obama, by embedding this handy dandy Countdown to a Pro&#45;Choice President Widget.&#160; And keep talking to your friends about the truth about John McCain.]]></description>
      <dc:subject>federal_elections, frontpage, Politics</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-08-30T14:02:00-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Bust McCain&#8217;s Moderate Myth]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/bust_mccains_moderate_myth/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/bust_mccains_moderate_myth/#When:20:13:00Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[Via feministing this morning, I learned about an excellent article from SLATE on John McCain and his TERRIBLE record on reproductive rights...read more HERE.
&#160;by KarinaWeb EditorPlanned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action FundVia feministing this morning, I learned about an excellent article from SLATE on John McCain and his TERRIBLE record on reproductive rights.Dahlia Lithwick of SLATE explains that most women don&#39;t want to overturn Roe v. Wade, but don&#39;t seem to understand that John McCain does.&#160; Lithwick continues:Voters, and especially women voters who want to make their own reproductive decisions, need to wake up and smell the asparagus. In July, for example, a Pew poll showed that 56 percent of the electorate didn&#39;t know where McCain stood on abortion. Listen up, because he&#39;s telling us now. To the extent McCain was ever independent&#45;minded at all on reproductive rights, he&#39;s not anymore. In 2000, McCain begged Bush to amend language in the GOP platform, which calls for a human&#45;life amendment banning all abortions and provides no exceptions for rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother. This week he indicated that he won&#39;t work to change that platform. That&#39;s a position espoused by fewer than 20 percent of the electorate. In the religion forum last weekend at Saddleback Church in California, McCain announced that life begins &quot;at the moment of conception&quot; and promised, &quot;I will be a pro&#45;life president, and this presidency will have pro&#45;life policies.&quot; In April he told Chris Matthews that &quot;the rights of the unborn is one of my most important values.&quot; He has bragged about his consistent zero rating from NARAL. He has explicitly said that his Supreme Court choices will be animated by his desire to overturn Roe.John McCain is not just anti&#45;choice&#45;&#45;&#45;he&#39;s anti&#45;choice TO THE MAX. Of course he doesn&#39;t want that to get out amongst women voters and actual moderates.&#160; As Lithwick explains, McCain can&#39;t even try to appease pro&#45;choice voters by, for example, selecting a pro&#45;choice VP, because as soon as he even suggests something like that, he gets &quot;smacked upside the head by his base.&quot;So what strategy is McCain relying on to secure the votes of countless pro&#45;choice voters? Confusion. McCain wants to trick you into thinking that he&#39;s a moderate, maverick. Don&#39;t let him fool you!Check out the rest of Lithwick&#39;s column HERE. E&#45;mail it or share it on facebook and help bust the myth that John McCain is a moderate.]]></description>
      <dc:subject>federal_elections, frontpage, Politics</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-08-27T20:13:00-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Bringing CHOICE to North Dakota]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/bringing_choice_to_north_dakota/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/bringing_choice_to_north_dakota/#When:16:39:00Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[Jane Bovard has been a champion in North Dakota&#39;s&#160; pro&#45;choice movement. In 1974 she started the first abortion counseling and referral hotline in the state and even listed her home number in...read more HERE.
&#160;by EmilyWeb CorrespondentPlanned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action FundJane Bovard has been a champion in North Dakota&#39;s&#160; pro&#45;choice movement. In 1974 she started the first abortion counseling and referral hotline in the state and even listed her home number in the phone book! In 1975, she founded the first state chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), and in 1981 she opened the first abortion clinic in the state, Fargo Women&#39;s Health Organization. Her legacy would continue with the opening of the Red River Women&#39;s Clinic in 1998. &#160;Progress didn&#39;t come easily, people tried to shame her, scare her and slow her down. Her clinic was firebombed, protesters picketed her business and her home, sometimes ringing her doorbell in the middle of the night and placing nails in her driveway. Bovard sacrificed a lot for reproductive freedom and on August 19th, the community and state got a chance to say, &quot;Thank you.&quot;&#160;An honorary celebration for Bovard was held at North Dakota State University&#39;s Alumni Center. Pro&#45;choice allies (some coming from as far as Duluth and Minneapolis) mingled together and enjoyed wonderful food and music. Many people said that Bovard had to be &quot;talked into&quot; the event, not wanting a fuss. She relented when she realized the event would be a fundraiser for the North Dakota Women in Need (WIN) Fund &ndash; a program that helps women afford abortion procedures at Red River Women&#39;s Clinic. &#160;The first speaker was former Fargo Mayor, Jon Lindgren. A supporter of reproductive freedom in local and state politics, Lindgren made sure city government treated Bovard fairly when she tried to obtain a building permit for the clinic. &#160;&quot;I am happy to honor Jane,&quot; Lindgren said. &quot;The clinic sends a serious message to the people of our state. Women in North Dakota won&#39;t be thrown onto the bonfire.&quot;&#160;Longtime friend and colleague, Lysa Ringquist spoke of Bovard as a &quot;Shero,&quot; and phenomenal woman, pointing out that &quot;being public in this fight is courageous.&quot; She also entertained the audience with tales of Bovard&#39;s courage under fire. When Bovard found a protester on the hood of her car refusing to move, she put the car in drive and then reverse until the man slid off. &#160;&quot;And she never looked back,&quot; Ringquist said to cheers from the audience. &#160;Other employees commended Bovard for creating a positive and safe work environment. When the clinic was firebombed, Bovard brought in officers from ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) to train employees on how to handle threats.&#160;The evening&#39;s keynote speaker, Sylvia Morgan, a retired women&#39;s studies and humanities professor from Minnesota State University (Moorhead), reminded the audience of the very serious hurdles Bovard and clinic workers encountered in their early days.&#160;&#160;&quot;I consider her a very dear friend,&quot; Morgan said of Bovard. &quot;It takes my breath away what she has had to endure.&quot; &#160;At the end of the evening, the audience heard from Bovard, who spoke about getting involved and starting the clinic. &#160;&#160;Bovard thanked people for contributing money to the WIN fund &ndash; (the evening raised $3500, which according to current clinic director, Tammi Kromenaker is the budget for one year.) But special thanks were reserved for her husband, Richard and family for standing behind her through all the trials.&#160;When asked how she accomplished all she did in the face of such cruel resistance, Bovard joked about having &quot;oppositional defiance disorder.&quot;&#160;&quot;The more they did things like that, the more it made me convinced that they wouldn&#39;t win. I was gonna hang in there.&quot;&#160;Spoken like a true champion.&#160;&#160;]]></description>
      <dc:subject>frontpage, Issues, NorthDakota</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-08-25T16:39:00-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Birth Control = Abortion?&#160; I Think Not.]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/birth_control_abortion_i_think_not/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/birth_control_abortion_i_think_not/#When:04:08:00Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[Perhaps you&rsquo;ve caught some of the news coverage recently about a new Health and Human services ruling the Bush administration that would compromise...read more HERE. 
 by Shannon Web CorrespondentSouth Dakota Community OrganizerPlanned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Perhaps you&rsquo;ve caught some of the news coverage recently about a new Health and Human services ruling the Bush administration that would compromise women&rsquo;s access to health care and information. This is just another attack on women&rsquo;s health care. The proposed rule would redefine abortion to include some of the most common and most effective methods of birth control. This will have a detrimental effect on women&rsquo;s ability to manage their own health care &ndash; yet another example of the government trying to intrude on personal decisions.What&rsquo;s even more maddening: this comes at a time when South Dakota is faced with another abortion ban. Once again, the government is focusing on the wrong aspects in solving the issue of unintended pregnancies. The best way to reduce the number of abortions in South Dakota and around the country is to provide better access, more affordable access, to birth control. Not to take it away.I&rsquo;ve always been scared about what&rsquo;s next? If this ban passes (and it won&rsquo;t, but if it does), what&rsquo;s next? What will the anti&#45;choice extremists attack next? Here&rsquo;s proof. Your ability to plan when you want to have children will no longer be your ability. It will be more big government intrusion into personal decision making.Just like Initiated Measure 11, decisions about birth control are something best left up to women and their families.]]></description>
      <dc:subject>frontpage, Issues, South Dakota</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-08-19T04:08:00-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[More evidence to suggest that abstinence&#45;only education is risky]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/more_evidence_to_suggest_that_abstinence_only_education_is_risky/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/more_evidence_to_suggest_that_abstinence_only_education_is_risky/#When:14:34:00Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[MSNBC reported on new research out of the University of Washington suggests that believing abstinence doesn&rsquo;t seem to play a role...read more HERE.
&#160;by KarinaWeb EditorPlanned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action FundMSNBC reported on new research out of the University of Washington suggests that believing abstinence doesn&rsquo;t seem to play a role in a teen&#39;s intention to have sex.The study suggests that despite the fact that learning about abstinence may have played a positive roll in teens&rsquo; attitudes toward abstinence, ultimately &ldquo;sex intention&rdquo; proved to be more influential than &ldquo;abstinence intention&rdquo;.In a range from 1 to 3, with 3 being the highest intention to abstain or to have sex, teens who scored very low on their sex intentions (1s) were not likely to have sex regardless of their abstinence intentions. But among teens with high scores (3s) on their sex intentions, those who also held the highest abstinence intentions were actually most likely to have sex.&quot;Increasing a kids&#39; abstinence intentions has little impact on the bottom line,&quot; Masters said. But if a teen with a high sex intention obtains higher abstinence intentions, &quot;he may become, we think, confused or conflicted and those heightened abstinence intentions may make him more likely to have sex in a kind of boomerang effect.&quot;Not surprisingly, the research suggests that teens have conflicted views about sex and abstinence. It&rsquo;s interesting to note that opponents of comprehensive sex education like to say that comp sex ed is risky because it gives kids &ldquo;mixed&#45;messages&rdquo; because it first emphasizes abstinence, but then goes on to provide information on how to protect and take care of oneself in the event that one chooses to be sexually active.&#160; The fact of the matter is that &ldquo;mixed messages&rdquo; and feeling conflicted is just a part of life.&#160; Many teens are going to feel conflicted about sex regardless of whether or not they have been taught abstinence&#45;only education or comprehensive sex education.&#160; The difference is that comp sex ed gives kids the info they need to keep themselves healthy if they choose to be sexually active. Abstinence&#45;only education leaves them uniformed.Which seems riskier to you?]]></description>
      <dc:subject>frontpage, Issues</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-08-15T14:34:00-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[News Links 8.13.08]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/news_links_81308/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/news_links_81308/#When:20:30:00Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[&quot;South Dakota Vote Draws Attention&quot; Wall Street Journal 8/12/08&quot;A Challenge to Roe v. Wade&quot; CNN 8/12/08 (via youtube)
South Dakota Vote Draws Attention, Wall Street Journal 8/12/08A Challenge to Roe v. Wade, CNN 8/12/08 (via youtube)]]></description>
      <dc:subject>frontpage, Issues, News, Politics, South Dakota</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-08-13T20:30:00-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[VIDEO: Dr. Buehner Speaks Out Against IM 11!]]></title>
      <link>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/dr_buehner_speaks_out_against_im_11/</link>
      <guid>http://ppsd.bluestatedigital.com/content/dr_buehner_speaks_out_against_im_11/#When:20:41:01Z</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[A few weeks ago I made a trip out to Rapid City, SD to meet with Dr. Marvin Buehner.&#160; He is an OB/GYN who specializes in high&#45;risk pregnancies.&#160; His perspective on IM 11 is unique and, I think, an important contribution...watch the video HERE.
  by Ashley B.&#45; SD Public Affairs Intern  A few weeks ago I made a trip out to Rapid City, SD to meet with Dr. Marvin Buehner.&#160; He is an OB/GYN who specializes in high&#45;risk pregnancies.&#160; His perspective on IM 11 is unique and, I think, an important contribution to the debate on IM 11.&#160; Please take a few minutes to watch his first video.&#160; Just a friendly reminder, you can still subscribe to our vodcast in iTunes.&#160; This way, you&#39;ll never have to worry about missing a video. If you want to get all of our videos and audio podcasts on your ipod, subscribe to the full Planned Parenthood Advocate Podcast.]]></description>
      <dc:subject>frontpage, Issues, podcast, South Dakota</dc:subject>
      <dc:date>2008-08-12T20:41:01-06:00</dc:date>
    </item>

    
    </channel>
</rss>