The Mid-Wife Defense

by digby

Those of you who’ve been following the saga of that paragon of family values, Ted Klaudt, will find this deeply ironic.

The very conservative, traditional Klaudt, you will recall, got his teen-age foster daughters to agree to sell their eggs for $20,000 and then proceeded to perform the necessary “exams” himself. Here’s Ted:

Tristero did a nice rundown of the legislation the highly moral, upholder of traditional family values sponsored when he was in the legislature. But he missed one:

HOUSE BILL NO. 1294

Introduced by: Representatives Begalka, Bradford, Elliott, Fryslie, Hackl, Klaudt, Lange, McCaulley, Olson (Ryan), and Valandra and Senators Koskan, Apa, Duenwald, Greenfield, Kooistra, Moore, and Napoli

FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to define midwifery and to prescribe the relationship between midwives and nurse midwives.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
Section 1. That § 36-9A-1 be amended by adding thereto NEW SUBDIVISIONS to read as follows:

“Midwife,” a woman who assists other women during pregnancy and childbirth;

“Midwifery,” the work of a midwife;

“Non-nurse midwife,” a midwife who is either not a nurse, or who, if she is a nurse, is not holding herself out as a nurse midwife practicing pursuant to § 36-9A-13.
Section 2.
That chapter 36-9A be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:

The provisions of this chapter do not apply to the practice of midwifery by any non-nurse midwife.

Perhaps Klaudt thought of himself as a non-nurse midwife?

In any case, his record shows a man obsessed with legislating a woman’s “area” in a variety of ways. I think psychologists could probably add this sort of thing to a profile. It certainly seems to be a common element of conservative Republican perversion.

H/T to Jane Hamsher and her reader Bill S