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• Hansen said the bill might have little effect because Planned Parenthood has a doctor at its Sioux Falls clinic only once a week, so women already have to wait a week or so to get an abortion after first meeting with a clinic doctor.
• Hansen said there are about 740 abortions in South Dakota each year, an average of 14 a week. A pregnancy help center needs time to conduct those 14 counseling sessions each week, he said.
• Rep. Karen Soli, D-Sioux Falls, a pastor, said she objects to the bill because it assumes pregnancy help centers will not help women on weekends.
• "The suggestion that counselors appointed for this purpose cannot make time on weekends and holidays to help their neighbors make life and death decisions is offensive to me," Soli said.
• Rep. Charlie Hoffman, R-Eureka, said the measure might make a woman spend two nights in a hotel waiting for an abortion, but the extra time for reflection and counseling might convince a woman to give birth and put the baby up for adoption.
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South Dakota lawmakers urged to expand Medicaid
CHET BROKAW,Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Health care officials and some low-income earners urged South Dakota lawmakers Wednesday to expand Medicaid so thousands of people would be covered by the government-run system, but opponents said an expansion would be too expensive and would interfere with the free market.
• Katherine Ruggles, 53, of Pierre, said she can get treatment at a community clinic that bases fees on ability to pay, but she and many others live in fear they will get seriously ill and face a hospital bill they cannot pay. She said she now works only a few hours a week because of chronic health problems.
• "We are one medical crisis away from economic disaster that may take us years -- or never -- to recover from," Ruggles told a special legislative hearing held to consider the advantages and drawbacks of expanding Medicaid as part of the federal health care overhaul.
• Ruggles was one of about 20 people who encouraged lawmakers to expand Medicaid. Only two people testified against the expansion.
• "We have to be realistic. The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money," said Florence Thompson, of Caputa, who described herself as a taxpayer.
• Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard has recommended that South Dakota delay a decision on whether to expand Medicaid because he is uncertain the federal gov (Continued on page 18)
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