As we proceed into the final week of the legislative session, significant bills that align with the core issues of Concerned Women for America are up for a final vote. Your prayers and actions are needed to make a difference. The legislators are getting so many emails that I fear they can’t get to all of them. Therefore, I suggest you email and call the Senate.

“Bathroom” Bill

HB1259 will protect women and girls from the entrance of males in their private spaces. Men and boys use one facility, and women and girls use another. We cannot deny the science that there are two sexes—male and female.

HB1259 will be voted on in the full Senate Monday, March 10. 

ACTION: Contact your senator and ask them to vote YES on HB1259. (Subject line: Vote YES on the “Bathroom” Bill.) If you don’t know who your senator is or how to contact them, check here. In addition to your email, you may call the Senate and leave a message for your senator at 605-773-3821 at any time or on any day.

Library Obscenity Bill

HB1239 is a good bill that would strengthen our law that protects minors from obscenity. It removes a harmful exemption that shields schools and libraries from complying with a legal prohibition on distributing “material harmful to minors.” We have laws that prohibit private bookstores, etc., from selling obscene content to minors. We must hold our taxpayer-funded libraries, like our public schools, to the same standard.

We know that obscene materials continue to be available to young people in taxpayer-funded libraries and schools throughout the state.

Unfortunately, this good bill has been mistakenly understood as a law that would “criminalize” librarians.

HB1239 passed in the House with a vote of 38-32. It passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee and will now be voted on Monday, March 10, in the Senate.

ACTION: Contact your senator and ask them to vote YES on HB1239. (Subject line: Vote YES on the Library Obscenity Bill.) If you don’t know who your senator is or how to contact them, check here. In addition to your email, you may call the Senate and leave a message for your senator at 605-773-3821 at any time or on any day.

Eminent Domain Bill

Great news! HB1052 will “prohibit the exercise of eminent domain for a pipeline that carries carbon oxide.” This will not stop landowners from signing easements with the pipeline company if they wish. Nor will it stop the pipeline company’s project. However, the pipeline company cannot serve eminent domain papers to landowners who do not want this hazardous pipeline on or near their land, home, school, business, etc.

You may read more about this issue in our fall newsletter here.

Our South Dakota Constitution assures our rights to “acquiring and protecting property”:

Our U.S. Constitution states in Amendment V, “No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law: nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”

Praise God! HB1052 passed in the House on January 27 with a vote of 49-19. It was passed in the Senate State Affairs Committee this Monday and in the full Senate on Tuesday with a vote of 23-12. Gov. Rhoden signed it into law on Thursday, March 6.

ACTION: If your Senator voted Yes, please thank them. Find out here how they voted. If you don’t know who your senator is or how to contact them, check here. In addition to your email, you may call the Senate and leave a message for your senator at 605-773-3821 at any time or on any day.

Note: When contacting your senator, be sure to let them know that you were informed on these issues by Concerned Women for America of South Dakota.

PRAYER: Father, we thank You that we live in the United States where we are free and have the opportunity to have a voice through our lawmakers in promoting good policy. As they proceed into the final week of the legislative session, bless our lawmakers with good health, peace, and clear minds so they can make the right decisions. In Jesus’ name. Amen