Jean Rounds chooses Minnesota abortion hospital for cancer treatment

Let's face it: Jean Rounds already looked like Hell in 2013 because of her alcoholism, addiction to opioids and chronic back pain. She had even asked her husband not to run for US Senate in 2014 but Reich Mike Rounds knew he had to run to prevent then-US Attorney for the District of South Dakota Brendan Johnson from opening his investigation of Rounds' role in Bendagate to the public.

But even though the family is catholic and there is a new cancer clinic in Pierre, the gossip would hinder her recovery at South Dakota's Avera which is already operating as an oligopoly funneling money to parishes paying settlements or hush money for the sins of predatory priests paid for by insurers and patients. So, to treat Jean's aggressive tumor near her sciatic nerve the Roundses headed to a Minnesota hospital well known for its excellent reproductive health care services.

Medical abortion is a procedure that uses medication to end a pregnancy. A medical abortion doesn't require surgery or anesthesia and can be started either in a medical office or at home with follow-up visits to your doctor. It's safer and most effective during the first trimester of pregnancy. [Mayo Clinic]

Rich women have full reproductive freedom while women at middle and lower income levels experience chilling effects on their rights. Women in South Dakota who can afford it simply jump on a plane and fly to Albuquerque, Minneapolis or Denver for their procedures. Imagine a woman on the Standing Rock or Pine Ridge doing that. Any registered nurse with half a brain will leave for Minnesota, Colorado or the Southwest the instant they graduate so the work force in South Dakota will just get older, stupider and more Republican.

But Mike Rounds' hypocrisy on access to medical care is hardly new. His donors Sanford, Avera and Rapid City Regional all have virtual medical industry monopolies in their markets.

U.S. Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) today introduced the Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act of 2019. This legislation would prohibit physicians from performing dismemberment abortions. It would impose a criminal fine, up to two years in prison, or both for individuals who perform this type of abortion. [press release, Senator Mike Rounds]

South Dakota’s repeated attempts to restrict access to medical care are not only mean-spirited, they're discriminatory anti-choice extremism. But, applaud the nutball Republican efforts diverting attention from the party’s culture of corruption where murders and their covers up are commonplace by clogging the legislative session with christianic religionist argle-bargle.