South Dakota GOP Legislators Support Abortion

GOP Backing Abortion in the South Dakota Legislature

Is there a Republican legislator in your district who is secretly an abortion-supporting Planned Parenthood minion ?   If you live in Brookings or Sioux Falls (or District 34 in Rapid City), then there’s a pretty good chance that the answer to that question is “Yes”.

“But how can that possibly be true?”, you loudly protest.  After all, according to the planks of the South Dakota GOP platform, the Republican Party in our state supports free markets (1.2), lower taxes (5.1), the right to keep and bear arms (6.4), and most importantly, it supports the sanctity of human life (7.7 and 7.8).

The platform even encourages South Dakota GOP candidates to “familiarize themselves with, and pledge to support, the platform of the South Dakota Republican Party” (5.14).

It stands to reason then, that most Republican voters in our state reasonably assume that their local candidates for the state House and Senate share and support the values contained in the SDGOP Platform, including pro-life plank 7.8 , which reads:

We believe human life begins at conception.  We oppose abortion and support bans on sex selection and partial birth abortion. We support those who provide alternatives to abortion or offer adoption services.  We oppose funding abortion providers with public resources.

However, the truth is that during the past two legislative sessions there have been several alleged ‘Republican’ legislators whose voting records clearly show them to be Pro-abortion rather than pro-life.  And all but one of them have actually received an “F” grade on the South Dakota Right to Life legislative report card.

The four SD GOP Senate candidates who have shown the most contempt for the pro-life position of the Republican Party are: Larry Tideman (District 7), Deb Peters (District 9), Deb Soholt (District 14), and Craig Tieszen (District 34).

ALL FOUR of these pro-abortion lawmakers voted AGAINST Senate Bill 72 which would have made it illegal to perform an abortion on an unborn child of 22 weeks or more since it is capable of feeling pain at that stage of development.

If you are a pro-life voter who happens to reside in one of these legislative districts, we encourage you to make your pro-life friends and neighbors aware of these wolves in sheep’s clothing and make public their pro-abortion voting records.

Both Tidemann and Peters faced challenges from pro-life candidates in the June primary, but were able to win those races.

However, Soholt faces a general election challenge this year from Tyler Swanger– an Independent pro-life candidate from Sioux Falls.  In other words, those of you who live in the Southeast section of Sioux Falls still have the opportunity to elect a pro-life candidate to the Senate.  If you have pro-life friends or family in District 14, we encourage you to share this article with them.

It is our opinion, that if we as GOP voters continue to blindly support candidates who claim to be Republican but vote like Democrats when they get to Pierre, then eventually there will be no discernible difference between the two parties. The only way to ensure that this doesn’t happen is to refuse to vote for candidates who fail to uphold the values of the SD GOP platform and especially those who show blatant disrespect for the sanctity of life.

Author’s Note: Mike Vehle from District 20 also received an “F” grade from SDRTL for 2015-16 but was term limited in the Senate and is one of two members of the ‘Sleazy Six’ to not to run for re-election in 2016. Scott Fiegan (District 25) received a grade of “D” from SDRTL on their report card, but also opted not to run for re-election in 2016.  In the case of Tieszen, he was term-limited in the Senate and is running for a spot in the House this November.