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Abortion Supporting Native Indian Chief in South Dakota May Be Impeached

By Gudrun Schultz

RAPID CITY, South Dakota, April 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Impeachment complaints have been filed twice against the woman who is pushing for an abortion clinic on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Native Reservation. Now a third complaint is underway, according to a tribal member.

The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council dismissed both previous complaints against tribal council president Cecelia Fire Thunder.

Fire Thunder is pushing for an abortion clinic on the reservation, after South Dakota passed a law banning almost all abortions in the state last month. She said the state law would not apply within the reservation.

Conducting abortions on the reservation would go against tribal law and the inherent respect for all life within the Oglala people, said Patrick Lee, retired chief judge for the Oglala who teaches tribal law at Oglala Lakota College, to the Associated Press.

“Life is sacred – the winged, two-legged, four-legged. You hear constant references to respect for life,” Lee said. “It’s the tribal law. She could ask the tribe to change the law. And that would be an uphill battle.”

Lee said the tribe’s respect for the unborn is specifically stated in the juvenile code: “a child conceived, but not born, is to be deemed an existing person so far as may be necessary for its interests and welfare to be protected in the event of its subsequent birth.”

Under the code, women could be charged with child abuse if they consumed excess amounts of alcohol during pregnancy, Lee said.

In related news, abortion advocates in South Dakota have launched an aggressive petition drive to collect signatures calling for a referendum on the new abortion ban in the state. 17,000 signatures are needed before the legislation will go before voters.

Major abortion supporters Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America and the American Civil Liberties Union, funded the petition drive through the organization South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, reported the United Press.

South Dakota’s legislature passed the abortion ban law with an overwhelming majority. It will go into effect on July 1.

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Abortion Ban Signed into Law by South Dakota Governor
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030603.html

Planned Parenthood South Dakota Plans to Defy Law, Continue Committing Abortions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030904.html

South Dakota Legislature Passes Bill making Abortion a Felony should Supreme Court Overturn Roe v. Wade
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05021810.html

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