Under South Dakota law, women who want to get an abortion must wait three days before getting the procedure. Republicans believe that women need time to think about their decision before they end a pregnancy. This includes forcing pregnant women to receive “counseling” from so-called “pregnancy help centers” that only do everything they can short of torture to persuade women not to have an abortion. But Republicans have decided to insult women even further. The South Dakota GOP seems to think that women are incapable of thinking on weekends and holidays so they’ve passed a bill in the legislature that excludes such days from being counted as part of the waiting period.





In other words, if a woman’s waiting period begins on a Friday, she would have to wait until the following Wednesday to have her abortion. That’s FIVE days instead of three.

According to the Rapid City Journal, the state Senate passed “an extension of what is already the nation’s longest waiting period for a woman to receive an abortion. Senators voted 24-9 Thursday to approve the bill, which has already been passed by the House. The measure will become law if signed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard,” which is likely to happen since he is a Republican.

This kind of action reveals a lot about what Republican politicians think about women. It’s really an insult to women that the GOP thinks so little of the female ability to think. It’s as if they believe that only men are capable of thought during the weekend or a holiday. It’s simply jaw-dropping to ponder how Republicans can believe such a thing. But that’s been a core reason why Republicans have inflicted so many laws against women making their own reproductive decisions. For years, the GOP has been convinced that women don’t understand the decision to have an abortion because they don’t think as well as men do. Apparently they believe that somehow women lose brain cells during pregnancy or are temporarily struck with stupidity. It’s the sort of belief that belongs in medieval times more than it does in present day America where we have a subject called science that consistently and constantly contradicts the mindless and sexist claims of Republican lawmakers.

What’s really sad is that despite all of these laws that degrade women and their intelligence, Republicans still manage to control state legislatures and governorships across the country. And Republicans in these states have been pushing every anti-abortion bill they can think of in order to strip women of their rights. From personhood bills to heartbeat bills to forced ultrasounds to 20 week and 12 week bans to waiting periods to severe clinic regulations to anti-birth control measures, Republicans have done everything but try to strap women down in order to force them to give birth against their will. But there is hope to end all of this GOP madness. The 2014 midterm elections are right around the corner and it’s the perfect chance for women to go to polls and punish Republicans at the state level for trying to take away their constitutional right to make their own reproductive choices. And you can be damn sure that it will be an easy decision to make.