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Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself.

Haven't you always wanted to visit South Dakota? Go now and help protect a woman's right to choose!!

In response to the legislation banning virtually all abortions in the state with no exceptions for rape or incest, over 37,800 South Dakotans signed petitions to place a repeal of the ban on the Election Day ballot. On November 7, 2006, South Dakotans will be able to reject the ban and tell politicians that women's health matters. The outcome in South Dakota could dictate whether other states enact similar bans, and the ACLU is part of a massive grassroots effort to overturn the South Dakota ban and ensure women everywhere have the right to choose.

Working with the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, the ACLU is playing a critical role on the ground in South Dakota -- we are the only group actively working to organize against the abortion ban on the state's Indian reservations, and are providing critical assistance to the Campaign for Healthy Families and local grassroots organizations. But there is much more to do to defeat this ban! South Dakota needs your help!!

With just 27 days to go in the election cycle we have a serious need for volunteers to travel to South Dakota for Get Out the Vote (GOTV) work. If you are interested, the Campaign for Healthy Families will locate free housing and a small per diem for food for folks that can travel to South Dakota on either of the two weekends before the Election Day (weekend of October 28 and weekend of November 4). Volunteers will help the Campaign for Healthy Families with their grassroots efforts, either by knocking on doors or by telephone work.

Although the Campaign for Healthy Families is working hard to convince South Dakotans that the ban is too extreme and is harmful to all women, anti-choice organizers are well funded and organized. Many anti-choice organizers are co-opting feminist messages, arguing that abortion exploits women and - for women's sake - must be stopped. In a strange twist, the ban's proponents insist that emergency contraception (which is available in only half of South Dakota's hospitals) provides an alternative for rape and incest victims.

With the help of national groups like the ACLU, the Campaign for Healthy Families will be able to defeat this extreme law, but we absolutely need willing hands and hearts. If you are able to travel to South Dakota before November 7th, please contact Rachel at 207-774-5444.

For more information on the ban and the efforts to repeal it, click here.

Thanks for getting involved.
Best,
Rachel

Rachel L. Myers
Field Organizer
Maine Civil Liberties Union
207-774-5444
www.mclu.org

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