The interview posted above is from SDPB's daily public affairs show, In the Moment with Lori Walsh.
In the Moment talks with the policy makers and protesters, the lobbyists and the litigators defining the abortion rights conversation in South Dakota. Lesleigh Owen is vice president of National Organization for Women's South Dakota chapter. We spoke with her on Monday, June 27.
Lori Walsh:
Tell us a little bit about what NOW, the National Organization for Women, does. And then a little something about the South Dakota chapter.
Lesleigh Owen:
The National Organization for Women is an organization that has been along fighting for women's rights since the 1960s. They emerged during second wave feminism, and they were tackling, kind of amusingly or not, reproductive rights, reproductive justice. They were fighting for rights in the workplace for women. And the organization has since remained, and it has, in fact, branched out to all the different states.
Lesleigh Owen:
So we are the South Dakota chapter. NOW and NOW South Dakota have six pillars or six things that we tend to emphasize, and I can never state all six, off the top of my head, of course. But I can say that they include things like racial justice, reproductive justice, violence against women, passing the ERA, LGBTQ rights.
Lori Walsh:
All right. So why stand by the personal right to decide when and if to bear a child? After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, give us a basic, "This is why we're opposed to this." Lay it out.
Lesleigh Owen:
There's just so much to say about that. I mean, the reason that I think we've had gender advocates working for reproductive justice and the right for pregnant people to choose what to do with their pregnancies is first of all, it's not a recent thing. It's gone back, actually, quite a long time. But there was a concerted push in the middle of the 20th Century. And interestingly, after Roe v. Wade was passed in '73, and prior to that, in the '60s and '70s, there was a wave of reproductive care, in terms of contraception, in terms of birth control. And after all of that stuff came about, the studies have shown it was such a boon to women.
Lesleigh Owen:
If you just look at any of the studies, women were able to join the workforce in greater numbers. Once they had control over their bodies, they could decide when and if they were going to have children. They were able to continue with their education, and so we saw, from the '70s on, this enormous boom of women in higher education, whereas right now, we have more women than men getting their degrees in college. We see women participating in the workforce at pretty much the same numbers as men, at this time.
Lesleigh Owen:
We've seen reductions in poverty. We've seen positive health outcomes, in terms of mental and physical health. The difference in having control over one's reproductive choices is a real night-and-day thing, in terms of one's economic and personal and social health.
Lesleigh Owen:
So it's not just about when or if someone can have a baby. This is all about people's financial and mental and physical health.
Lori Walsh:
Do you think, having laid out what you've just laid out, that there is an argument for Constitutional protection for abortion rights, under the 14th Amendment, for example? Explain that to me. Where do you think this is in the Constitution?
Lesleigh Owen:
I wish I were a Constitutional scholar, so that I could eloquently make the case for this. I do think that it is unfortunate that up until yesterday, it was a Constitutional right, and the Constitutional right was located under the 14th Amendment.
Lesleigh Owen:
So that the government should not have the right to control the bodies and choices of its citizens seems kind of obvious and patriotic to me. The idea that we, in the US, can tell folks what to do with their bodies ... whether or not, literally, they can have children, whether their healthcare and their reproductive choices are their own, when it is okay or not okay.
Lesleigh Owen:
All of these things, to me, are all splitting hairs. Ultimately, it bypasses the question of who has control over one's own body, and I think most reproductive justice advocates would say that's up to us, as individuals. It is not up to the government.
Lori Walsh:
All right, so an NPR / PBS / Marist poll found that 56% of Americans oppose the overturning of Roe or the support of the Dobbs decision, which is far from a consensus. So you have some work to do. What's your approach to overturning of Roe v. Wade? What happens next, from your organization?
Lesleigh Owen:
That's an awesome question. First of all, I just want to say it is the majority of US citizens who do oppose overturning Roe. So while it's not 100%, I don't think you can get 100% on literally anything in the US.
Lori Walsh:
I would agree.
Lesleigh Owen:
It is pretty overwhelming, I think, the general idea of body autonomy and of securing the right of some kind of reproductive choice. I think folks might disagree on where that choice should be mitigated: What point during a pregnancy or with what types of circumstances? And that, I think, is fine, but the majority of folks do uphold that right or do want that to be upheld.
Lesleigh Owen:
But that said, this to me, seems like a fundamental right to control one's body, and there were points in time ... Even if we were at a point where 20% of folks said, "Roe v. Wade should be upheld," there were times when civil rights, when segregation was a popular choice in the US. The fact is, body autonomy and civil rights is something that I think should be fundamental to who we are as US citizens, as opposed to subject, necessarily, to public opinion.
Lesleigh Owen:
So all of that said, where are we going from here? The real beauty of this: NOW South Dakota is working with a number of organizations in South Dakota. We're chatting with the ACLU. We're chatting with Planned Parenthood. We're chatting with South Dakota for Healthy Families and other organizations, in talking about: Where do we go from here? And each one of us has their own specialty. Obviously, the ACLU is backing up legal rights. Excuse me.
Lesleigh Owen:
As a 501(c)(4), we are a political organization. We're a non-profit, but we are political. Part of what we're doing is advocating for legal and political rights, so we are working with the ACLU and others, to try to get folks registered to vote, to get folks interested in candidates who are going to protect the right to choice. I guess it's not protect the right to choice; I guess that's old language. That are going to reinstate or fight for South Dakotans' right for choice.
Lori Walsh:
That same poll from NPR and PBS and Marist said 51% of those polled are looking for Congressional candidates to restore reproductive rights. Again, that's the majority, although a slim one. That might not be the same poll result if you just took South Dakotans, but we don't know, because that poll hasn't been done here in the same exact way. You need Republican voters in the state to agree with you. What are some of the ways to educate or convince? Or in your mind, you're working to connect people to resources, but from the political standpoint, how do you reach out?
Lesleigh Owen:
That's an amazing point, and I will say, although you would definitely expect NOW South Dakota to be filled more with folks from maybe the Democratic or Independent parties, we do have some Republican folks there. I think you have a lot of folks who are really interested in keeping the government out of our business and out of our bodies, out of our rights, out of our practices. That, to me, seems like a fundamental tenet of the GOP platform. So I would expect to see just as many Republican folks at rallies and at Cracker Barrels, when we have them, and showing up to meetings to talk about where we're going to go from here, as I would seeing Democrats or Independents.
Lesleigh Owen:
So I think this is something that applies across the board. We can talk to Democrats and say, "Hey, Democrats, Democrats are really interested in intersectional justice, so we can talk about how this is going to disproportionately harm disabled folks and folks of color and poor folks. And so this is a justice issue." We can talk to Republicans and say, "This is government overreach. This is the government telling you what to do with your body and destiny, and shouldn't we all be extremely upset at this, no matter political party?"
Lori Walsh:
And this leads to my next question, which is: So much about politics in 2022 is about partisan advantage. So there can be these voting blocks, where people really just vote with the way the party wants them to vote, where you see the super majority in South Dakota, where you see control over redistricting. Which brings us to the ballot question or referred law question in the State of South Dakota.
Lori Walsh:
Now, in 2008, an abortion initiative failed. Much has changed in the state, as far as political leanings, but this legislative session that's coming up, the special session that Governor Kristi Noem has called, are there certain laws that you're watching for? That you think, broadly speaking, would be worth the effort to refer to the voters, knowing what you know about state politics here?
Lesleigh Owen:
I'm not going to lie. I am terrified by this special session that Governor Noem has talked about, in part because she has said in the past, she wants to make sure that South Dakota is the least friendly state in the US to abortion. So we are already pretty restrictive. Obviously, it is now illegal. It is a classic felony to get an abortion in South Dakota. And we do have one exception for abortion. It is never okay, including in cases of rape and incest, to get an abortion in South Dakota now. But if the mother's life is in danger, then it is all right, and I am worried that that could be the teeniest of right that even gets taken away.
Lesleigh Owen:
I am worried about laws that spill into really private concerns of people who are pregnant. Are we going to have further laws that say fetuses that are not viable have to be carried to term? Or that fetuses that will harm the mother's health but not necessarily kill her will need to be carried to term? Or will there be a spillover into birth control? I know that there are concerns that in vitro fertilization, because often it involves the fertilization of multiple ova, and then there is sometimes the destruction of some. Or sometimes there are problems with the pregnancy. And would that be outlawed? And I know that there have been some rumblings here and there by some South Dakotans in office, who have said banning some forms of birth control, whether that is birth control ... Plan B.
Lori Walsh:
Emergency contraception.
Lesleigh Owen:
Probably would be already. But other forms of birth control, like IUDs, don't allow for implantation. How far is this going to go? And is it going to infringe on the right to access certain types of reproductive care in the form of contraception?
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. What about the potential-
Lesleigh Owen:
Where is this going to go?
Lori Walsh:
Similar to what Missouri is looking at, to ban travel or to allow citizens to sue other citizens for traveling or helping someone get access to services in another state. That's part of what you're doing, is helping people make connections that would change the efforts, as well, too. We don't know what's going to come out of this legislative session, the special session.
Lesleigh Owen:
That is 100% right, and I'll be really honest. I've been really nervous about that, too, because is it is already a felony for anyone to administer an abortion or to receive an abortion now, in South Dakota. Is it going to be a felony to assist someone, even if that is going across state lines, or if that is making a phone call for someone? I don't know where this is going to lead.
Lori Walsh:
Now, there's obviously so much that's being written about this changing landscape of abortion today, but I was reading an article in The New York Times that outlined the 2010 election and some of the political history of this. It's written by Kate Zernike, and she talks and interviews some people who were upset about the national infrastructure for local elections and what led to some of the chipping away at Roe v. Wade, over all, through state legislation.
Lori Walsh:
So with that in mind, my question to you is: Do you have the infrastructure to implement your approach? Are you getting support? Is this a grassroots thing that you need support from South Dakotans? Or do you feel like there's a nationwide effort and that you're plugged into that? What do see infrastructure challenges and opportunities looking like for NOW South Dakota?
Lesleigh Owen:
That is an excellent question. I actually have multiple ways to answer that. The first thing is I wish we had 100% solid plans right now, but everything feels a little bit up in the air, because we're not exactly sure how far the law is going to spill out, what exactly is going to take effect, and where local laws might be interpreted differently, depending on the folks who are there to enforce them. So we're not entirely sure. At the moment, we're talking about assisting pregnant persons in finding reproductive care, so we are not 100% sure what that looks like. We have the passion, and we're talking about doing some fundraising to help folks find resources and to help fund some of those resources. But I understand there are some national organizations, and there is, as you said, some infrastructure already set up. So if there is a way to tap into that, I would also be really amenable to that.
Lesleigh Owen:
So even if our resources are just helping folks who come directly to us access some of these more national resources, but that's still going to require some boots on the ground here, just in terms of linking folks up, maybe taking them to the airport or whatever this will end up being. So do we have a lot of resources? We don't right now. We're still in the fundraising discussion stage.
Lesleigh Owen:
And I know we've had about a month to think through this, but I think a lot of us are still really gobsmacked. A lot of us are still reeling. And so maybe we should have had more set up for this, but right now, I think we're just hugging each other and trying to figure out what steps are next. So we're not entirely sure. We just know that we want to help folks, and we know we want to effect political change, on the other hand. So we know where we want to go. We're just not 100% sure of the roads that will take us there yet.
