By Denise Ross

Students at the University of St. Thomas school of law in neighboring Minnesota cannot fulfill their 50 hours of required community service at Planned Parenthood.

The school’s decision is erupting into controversy just as finals bear down on students, but that doesn’t seem to be dampening opinions on both sides of the issue.

At first a committee struck a compromise, saying a student could volunteer at Planned Parenthood in areas that do not deal with contraception or abortion. That sparked angry missives from devout Catholics who say that anything Planned Parenthood does undermines Catholic teachings.

So a dean banned Planned Parenthood service (for credit) altogether, which sparked a predictable wave of protest from another group of folks.

The latest controversy has forced St. Thomas’s law school to weigh its secular, prestige-oriented ambitions, underlined by its recent ascension to third-tier status in the influential U.S. News & World Report rankings, against the pressure to hew to the Catholic Church’s doctrinaire leadership …

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By Denise Ross

This from my e-mail box:

PRESS ADVISORY:  Diverse South Dakota Organizations Come Together – Ask Governor Rounds for Common Sense Solutions to Unintended Pregnancy

Who:  9 diverse organizations concerned with the health and well being of women joined together to ask the Governor to use his leadership to find practical solutions to unintended pregnancy in South Dakota.  The group consists of members of AAUW South Dakota, Democracy In Action – Rapid City, South Dakota League of Women Voters, NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota, National Women’s Political Caucus – South Dakota, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Dakota Advocacy Network for Women and the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault and South Dakota NOW.
 
What:  Coinciding press conferences in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

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