Lean in. Get back to work. No matter what. Work harder, longer, later. Move up, take over. It sounds like a Daft Punk song, but it's actually the clarion call of modern mainstream feminism.

In human history, it would be difficult to point to a period that was a really great time to be a woman. It has mostly sucked. And while things are objectively better than ever for many of us, these last few years have been pretty heady times for women, perhaps because we thought we had achieved a certain level of equality, of respect - an understanding that when it came to a woman’s place in the world, certain things had finally been agreed upon, certain things had finally been shed.

The struggles of indigenous people to survive and thrive within a colonial structure are numerous and varied. Historically, one of the most difficult elements has been simply to maintain (or restore) a population base devastated by disease, colonial encroachment, assimilation, violence, and poverty. In a number of international cases, the dominant society's actions that focused on stemming indigenous population growth have also played a part in this devastation, including the practice of forced or coerced sterilization.

In the American legal system, when someone steals something that belongs to you, you have legal recourse. When when someone profits from the valuable products of your human intellect without obtaining your permission or compensating you, you have legal recourse. But what if what is being stolen and profited from is less something you have than something you are?

In 2005, a year after a bill to completely ban abortion had been vetoed on technical grounds by Governor Mike Rounds, the South Dakota State Legislature approached the issue of abortion yet again, this time focusing on ideological rather than criminal means. A task force was established that would ostensibly study abortion and in reality provide the findings that would undergird the now infamous 2006 abortion ban.

A new focus on true informed consent in reproductive health care is needed. True informed consent, a legal right of all Americans, would be accurate, unbiased, would include all necessary information, and would respect the intelligence and autonomy of women to make their own decisions.

For such a small state, South Dakota has managed to spend a lot of time political spotlight. From presidential candidate George McGovern to former Senate Majority Leader and soon-to-be Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Daschle, South Dakota has a history of involvement on the national stage. One study has even shown that North and South Dakota have produced more members of Congress per capita than any other state in the union. But most recently, the state has become synonymous with the battle over abortion rights through two ballot initiatives that would have directly challenged Roe v. Wade in 2006 and 2008.