AP: Abortion Ban May Affect S.D.Tourism

PIERRE, S.D., March 17 - The superintendent of Mount Rushmore was surprised at first when people from all over the country started calling up to express their opinion about South Dakota's ban on nearly all abortions.

Some callers said they were so upset that they would never visit Mount Rushmore, South Dakota's No. 1 tourist attraction. Others said they were so thrilled that they would make a point of coming to see the chiseled faces of four U.S. presidents in the Black Hills.

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And a few small groups have called for a tourism boycott of South Dakota, urging people to avoid such attractions as Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, and the Corn Palace, an arena in Mitchell whose walls are covered with colorful ears of corn.

The furor was prompted by the passage of the strictest abortion law in America - a ban on all abortions except to save a woman's life, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The measure, set to take effect July 1, is aimed at overturning the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that established the right to an abortion.

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http://www.beliefnet.com/story/187/story_18789_1.html



I say, let their tourism go down in flames. :evilgrin:

edited to correct gender, how stupid of me, of course he's a man, no doubt part of the reason why he associates the backlash against this law with freedom and choice:
"That's what America is all about, people expressing their freedom and people expressing their choices and so forth."


Edited again to give props to trotsky for posting this in the choice forum and also to his extremely talented friend, who designed the logo.

Or would he think it had something to do with Joan Crawford. :P

I could even afford to do that.

I have a few hundred I'd be happy to donate.


Edit: How about the "Million Hanger March? We set up a project to deliver at least one million coat hangers, one at a time, to the guv's office?!?

Each with a little note reading "South Dakotan women will be needing more of these now". :evilgrin:

South Dakota isn't the first place that pops into my mind. In fact, it's probably not even in the top 100 places in the United States that I'd visit for a vacation.
Living in South Dakota is it's own punishment and passing that inane law has done nothing to alter that stereotype. Personally, I wouldn't set foot in that state for any reason.

Target biker women! They are known to be independent & forward thinking, let's see if that is so...

There are not many rebels on bikes anymore. The real rebels don't have the money to purchase and maintain and customize and accessorize their bikes to impress middle-aged women.

Idaho was proposing some sort of right wing legislation a few years ago, but when talk turned to boycotting Idaho potatoes, they changed their mine. What's South Dakota's potato?

Tourism is South Dakota's second-largest industry, behind agriculture, with visitors to the state spending $809 million in 2005, according to the Tourism Department. Mount Rushmore received 2.75 million visitors in 2005.

Among those calling for a boycott is the Women's Medical Fund, an abortion rights organization based in Madison, Wis. "Our message is that if they are going to treat women in this inhumane way, they can expect to pay a price," said Anne Gaylor, the group's director.

State Tourism Director Billie Jo Waara said that her office has been getting a dozen or so calls a day from people on both sides of the issue. Some say they will not vacation in South Dakota, but very few of those who had already made travel plans have canceled, she said.