William M. "Bill" Napoli (born June 17, 1948) is a former Republican state

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

in the South Dakota State Legislature, representing the 35th State Senate district. He retired in 2008. On March 20, 2008, Napoli announced that he would not seek re-election and instead would retire from politics. In the ''Rapid City Journal'', Napoli stated that he would run for governor "if his supporters ask him to".

Comments on abortion

Napoli entered the spotlight by virtue of several public statements he made regarding the

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...

H.B. 1215, enacted in 2006, to limit

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

access in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

to those cases in which the woman's life would be in danger, possibly anticipating or inviting a repudiation of ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and st ...

'' by the Roberts Court. Among his statements were, "When I was growing up here in the wild west, if a young man got a girl pregnant out of wedlock, they got married, and the whole darned neighborhood was involved in that wedding. I mean, you just didn't allow that sort of thing to happen, you know? I mean, they wanted that child to be brought up in a home with two parents, you know, that whole story. And so I happen to believe that can happen again." Asked about a possible exception to that rule, Napoli replied, "A real-life description to me would be a

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a

virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."

Reactions to Napoli's comments

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

commenting on Napoli's vote appeared in the

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Minimum Security A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correcti ...

'' on March 22, 2006. It included his office and home telephone numbers, thus prompting calls, some of which were abusive.Woster, Kevin. (April 5, 2006)
"Napoli-lampooning cartoon offered at auction on eBay"
''The Rapid City Journal''. Retrieved June 17, 2006. In Napoli's words, "99% percent of the calls I got were just filth. I bet I didn't talk to 20 or 25 people I could talk to. The rest were screaming obscenities before I could hang up."Woster, Kevin (April 6, 2006)
"Cartoon sells for $2,200 on eBay"
''The Rapid City Journal''. Retrieved June 17, 2006. The

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

, Stephanie McMillan, auctioned the original cartoon on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

for US$2,201.00 and donated all of the money to pro-choice causes. One half was given to

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

and South Dakota, and the other half to the

Oglala Sioux The Oglala (pronounced , meaning "to scatter one's own" in Lakota language) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live o ...

tribe, because the former tribal president

Cecilia Fire Thunder Cecilia Fire Thunder (born Cecilia Apple; October 24, 1946) is a nurse, community health planner and tribal leader of the Oglala Sioux. On November 2, 2004, she was the first woman elected as president of the Tribe. She served until being impeac ...

had planned on opening an abortion clinic on the

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation ( lkt, Wazí Aháŋhaŋ Oyáŋke), also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located entirely within the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Gr ...

. In early March 2006, a Google bomb was started by the romance blog ''Smart Bitches Trashy Books'' in an attempt to popularize a

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

of his last name as something undesirable,Tan, Candy (2006)
"Bill Napoli is spelled A-S-S-H-A-T"
''Smart Bitches, Trashy Books''. Retrieved October 5, 2006. much like Dan Savage's reaction in his column "Savage Love" to Rick Santorum's remarks about homosexuality. In early April 2006, his senate webpage was also the subject of a Google bomb for the term "sexist asshat".

References

External links

South Dakota Legislature - William Napoli
official SD Senate website
Project Vote Smart - Senator William Napoli (SD)
profile *''Follow the Money'' - William (Bill) Napol
2000200220042006
campaign contributions {{DEFAULTSORT:Napoli, William 1948 births Living people Republican Party members of the South Dakota House of Representatives Politicians from Rapid City, South Dakota Republican Party South Dakota state senators