SD House Approves Abortion Ban
The South Dakota House has passed a bill that would nearly ban all abortions in the state, ushering the issue to the state Senate.
Supporters are pushing the measure in hopes of drawing a legal challenge that will cause the US Supreme Court to reverse its 1973 decision legalizing abortion.
…Amendments aimed at carving out exemptions for rape, incest and the health of women were rejected.
Reader Interactions
61Comments
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The Other Steve
Sounds to me like they are hoping it will be overturned by a court.
KC
Sad to say it, but oh well.
Eural
Yeah- there’s your “culture of life” at work. Protect every fetus and screw the mother if necessary. Sad.
The Other Steve
Abortion debate isn’t about fetus, it’s about controlling women.
ChristieS
Here is a huge entry on this from yesterday. Along with the postings, be prepared for the shocking picture that accompanies the article. And if anyone can tell me how to bury the URL into a small one or two word description for the website I’d be grateful. I don’t know how to do that.
Disclaimer: MyLeftWing is the blog of MaryScott O’Conner. She IS the far left, and will be happy to tell you that.
Otto Man
Sure thing.
1. Write the text — for instance, “the MyLeftWing Blog”
2. Highlight the text
3. Click on “link” in the list of commands above the post window
4. Paste the URL in the pop-up box and click OK
The end result will look like this: the MyLeftWing Blog
ppGaz
Take one more pass with Occam’s razor.
It’s about superiority. Being morally superior to other people. It’s about false sanctimony. It’s about power, but not just over women. Over “them.”
ChristieS
Otto, thank you. Heh…I’ve copied your instructions into my word docs, lol. That way I’ll have them to refer to the next time. I link so rarely that I can never remember how.
ChristieS
Just to see if I can follow directions and still stay on topic, here is Anne Lamott and The Rights of the Born.
StupidityRules
Sales of steel coat hangers reportedly up 550% in South Dakota.
Eural
Thanks for the link Christie – neat piece. Polling indicates most main stream Americans seem to be against abortion privately (or at least the concept) but support a woman’s freedom to choose. Yet, most evangalicals (though by no means all) are against that right. They are also against any compromise or discussion on the issue that doesn’t clearly label abortion as murder. How to reconcile those disparities is a heckuva problem. I know that for my conservative friends abortion is the defining battle that they helped elect Bush to fight. Any other problems with his administration are easily forgiven in light of his judicial appointments which they say are clearly abortion driven regardless of the other claptrap that might get argued during the appointment process.
Krista
I don’t even know what to say to this…no words could express my disgust.
guyermo
Republican culture of life “We’ll have your baby whether you want it or not, and even though you’ll die in the attempt.”
CaseyL
Does this have a chance of passing S Dak’s Senate? If so, any woman in S Dak who aspires to being more than an ambulatory incubator better either get her tubes tied or move to another state.
Oh, I’m absolutely sure they want this to go to the SCOTUS. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when/if it does (no earlier than the 2007 session, is my guess). Count on 4 votes to uphold (Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts) and see which way Kennedy swings.
Jill
Sick f*cks. If men had uteruses abortion would have been written into the constitution.
Zifnab
It’s a rather ham-handed attempt if you ask me. I mean, even if they do have four votes solidly in their favor on the Supreme Court, I can’t help but see this type of law getting struck down again and again all the way up the district levels. And if Roberts ment a single sordid thing about Staire Desises, this will clear it up in short order. I can’t imagine anything flying so flagrantly in the face of O’Conner’s undue burden constrant.
ChristieS
Check out Indiana’s proposal
Krista, if this passes, can I come live with you? I promise my daughter and I don’t eat much.
KC
I’m not trying to be defeatist here, but I think it’s time to face some facts: conservatives have pretty much won on abortion, at least for now, and things aren’t going to change until 1) more middle class voting aged women are affected by anti-abortion legislation and 2) Roe is overturned and federal legislation stemming abortion is put forward. The reason I say this is because several states have already made it very difficult for women to obtain abortions and as of yet, I am aware of no mass outcry in them against anti-abortion legislation. To the contrary, from what I understand, the wind is at the anti-abortion forces’ backs. When I see women (and men) in those states start rising up in anger, I might change my mind. Until then though, I think that things are going to probably get worse before they get better, at least for pro-choicers.
John Cole
I am of the opinion that any complete ban on abortion will be temporary, and will be followed by reversals and a permanent Democratic majority.
Zifnab
Here’s hoping. But I’m just not seeing it.
Maybe when they start outlawing contraception… but even then, you have to understand that in some states the special interests literally own everything. Governor. Legislature. Courts. All bought and paid for. People getting angry just doesn’t matter anymore in some places.
Perry Como
Dead daughter or dead fetus? That’s what it will come down to.
ChristieS
John, you might be correct on all points, the saddest part of that is the number of women who will be negatively affected by the ban while it’s still in force.
Unless we figure out a way to reversibly sterilize people when they’re born and make it mandatory (no, I’m NOT advocating this, it’s purely rhetorical), there will always be unexpected and unwanted pregnancies. And if these women cannot get legal abortions, then they’re going to get illegal ones.
Zifnab
Here’s what really pisses me off to no end. You’re not allowed to sue your HMO, you’re not allowed to sue your doctor for full damages in a botched procedure due to Tort “Reform”, and people are increasingly restricted from sueing pharmaseudical companies. But when it comes to getting an abortion, suddenly the health and well-being of the patient is of the highest priority.
Does anyone but me see a bit of hypocrasy in all of this?
Perry Como
You vote for the religious whackos you have, not the whackos you want.
ChristieS
John, thanks for editing my first post.
ChristieS
Or Tim.
John Cole
You are welcome.
tb
Republicans to women: Fuck you, we own your bodies.
Steve
Interesting post on a related topic yesterday…
Shorter version: Legislators with all daughters rate 12% higher on women’s issues than legislators with all sons.
Kinda interesting. Maybe more people should have daughters.
Pooh
The point of this law is to make it as egregious a violation of Roe/Casey, etc. as possible to make sure it goes up the ladder, but quickly. Though if I’m Planned Parenthood, I don’t rise to the bait on this particular one – first for that reason and second, IIRC there are no doctors who perform the procedure left in SoDak (maybe it was NoDak) anyway.
Alan
In a way I’m glad. It’s about time this issue gets hashed out. I’m sick and tired of the Religious Right’s hold on the GOP. And if the courts end up repealing RvW then it’s up to the legislature. If the GOP controlled congress doesn’t do a thing to fix it they’ll lose their majority in a dying heartbeat. And sorry Rush Limbaugh and all the other “conservative” pundits–a majority may believe abortion is immoral but that does not translate into making abortion illegal. Conservatism is for limited government–that includes economic and social issues. You can take your absurd pro-life agenda and shove it up your ass.
-Signed: a Barry Goldwater conservative. :)
richard
I was speaking to someone in the know in South Dakota who told me that the prolife organizations are opposing the passage of this legislation with their supporters in the senate. A lot of groups consider that the timing is bad, since the appeal will reach the supreme court while there is still a pro-Roe majority and therefore will end up cementing the superprecedent status of Roe- arguably it will be a new Roe which allows the Supremes to remedy the problems of the old decision and will reflect the sentiments of the new century. In this light, prochoicers should be encouraged by the potential of this horrible decision. I don’t know how the SD prolifers are going to be able to justify opposing this legislation to their supporters, or how they will be able to provide cover to legislators who oppose it on their behest. I also wouldn’t care except that the potential for self-destruction is so promising. There is at least one abortion provider in SD who will be affected (Planned Parenthood of SD) although I don’t know what kind of penalty provisions are in the bill- there was a recent swathe of sex-bills in the SD legislature, including a ban on contraception promotion, which did not have penalty provisions.
Sojourner
This is excellent news. It’s about time voters truly understand what they’re voting for. It ought to really hit home when the otherwise college-bound teenage daughter turns up pregnant or the wife experiences serious and permanent health issues due to having to go full term.
They voted for these assholes, fuck ’em.
Krista
ChristieS – no problem! I have a snuggly old dog, an inflata-bed and inside access to lobster. What more could you want?
Yeah, this whole topic just angers and depresses me. Like you said, there are ALWAYS going to be unwanted pregnancies. If people didn’t have their heads up their asses and a chokehold on their Bibles, they’d know that the ideal scenario would be to reduce unwanted pregnancies by means of education, and accessible and inexpensive contraception. Instead, those reality-challenged fuckwits think that if they can get their way, then the only people having sex will be married, and financially and mentally able to care for a child. Everybody else will just have to take up knitting or something.
What I want to know is: are they fucking kidding? Or are they that stupid and naive to think that this is a possibility?
Krista
Sojourner – that’s the problem, though. Even if every single person of voting age in South Dakota HAD voted for those assholes, there are still blameless people there, like that college-bound teenage daughter you mentioned. She might not have been of age to vote for those assholes, but her life might be permanently derailed (or even endangered) because of this.
I too, hope it serves as a wake-up call to the voters, but it’s a travesty that it came to this, and that in the meantime, there are going to be victims of this bill.
Sojourner
In the past, I would have agreed with you. But after witnessing the incredible damage the Repubs have inflicted on this country over the past five years, my position is a whole lot more ruthless. People have to be held accountable for their actions – and that includes voters like John Cole.
Zifnab
The problems don’t rest with those who voted for them. Rich, white Republican suburbanites rarely suffer from legal issues when they can just buy their way out from under them. But Republicans love to pick on the poor, the minorities, and the disenfranchised. If you’re a Democrat or a pro-choicer you get to suffer just as much as the Republican who voted these douche bags in.
Seriously, if you want to talk about Democrats suffering under the Republican yoke, just come down to Texas. We’ve got a shithole education system and a fiscal policy that I’m sure even Mexico is laughing at. As an Austin resident, I can honestly tell you its not like the state lacks Democrats. It just lacks Democrats with cronies in office.
james richardson
Further on in the article, some lawmaker or other says something like “Aborting the child won’t undo the rape” as to why there was no exception clause. I think it was a women as well. I suppose it never occured to (her) that the issue is a woman has control over her own body and what happens to it.
I agree with some of the above however that this is indeed Democracy. These are the voters’ representatives. Whether or not it would be overturned (and I think it would be without an exception clause), it will be interesting what the voters do on election day; whether they re-elect this group of lawmakers or boot them out.
Krista
All your uteri are belong to us
Sojourner
Let the Republican yoke continue to tighten. Take away our rights, shred the Constitution. Whatever it takes to force the uninformed, lazy American citizens to get off their asses and take their country back.
Evilbeard
What if that never happens Sojourner? I’d rather fight now before dissent is illegal and not just frowned upon as unamerican.
Pooh
heh. Zero Wing = Snark gold.
CaseyL
Back in the 60’s-70’s, before Roe, when abortion was illegal almost everywhere, there was something called the Jane Project:
“For the first time, the story of JANE is told by those who operated and were served by the collective, most of whom have never spoken publicly about JANE before. “If you needed an abortion, for whatever reason, you took your life into your own hands – and you were terrified, absolutely terrified,” recounts a member of the collective of the late 1960s. “All you knew is that you might die, that this person didn’t know what he was doing and you were going to pay hundreds of dollars…to bleed to death in some hotel room.”
Heather Booth, then a student at the University of Chicago involved in civil rights and antiwar movements, found herself sought out by a few young women who were pregnant, scared, and desperate. They had somehow heard that Booth knew of a safe abortionist. Soon others began to call, prompting Booth and several other young feminists to found JANE, an anonymous abortion service that provided counseling and acted as the go-between for pregnant women and doctors willing to perform the procedure.
Appalled at the exorbitant procedure fees and upon discovering that their main abortionist wasn’t a licensed physician, the women of JANE learned to perform illegal abortions themselves. Eventually, the underground collective performed over 12,000 safe, affordable abortions. Word of the illegal alternative was spread through word-of-mouth, cryptic advertisements, and even by members of Chicago’s police, clergy, and medical establishment.”
I wonder, once Roe is reversed, if we’ll see an underground movement start again.
Hell, in the Brave New World Order Bush is creating for America, we might go back to the 60’s in a big way. A real underground might grow again, in areas besides abortion/birth control (just imagine what’ll happen if they bring back military conscription). It’ll be a lot harder, with the surveillance technologies we have today – but hackers could play an important role in evading those, too.
ppGaz
This is also the first of many.
By the time all the photos are out there, it’s going to look like George Bush and Mr. Abramoff are butt buddies.
And may I say, it couldn’t happen to a nicer alcoholic drug addict lying ne’er do well failed businessman. That would be Bush, not Abramoff, for those of you who just tuned in.
Jackmormon
Oh, Jesus. A friend of mine mentioned this at dinner tonight, but I hadn’t heard of it before then. We’re single women living in New York State; we’ll probably be okay when the inevitable happens. Lower-income women–especially lower-income under 18 year-old women–who happen to live in conservative states: they’ll be bearing that child to term.
States’ rights, my ass. I should hope that anyone who has the vestige of sympathy for this Federalist argument would also support a woman’s ability to travel somewhere where her desire to end her pregnancy might still be legal. I don’t count on this legal consistency, however; the next step is to make interstate travel in order to pursue an abortion a crime. Or just really, really inconvenient.
CaseyL
Wouldn’t it be nice if those assholes devoted one-tenth as much of their time and energy to protecting children who aren’t fetuses anymore? If they were as adamant about the well-being of actual kids as they are about blastocysts?
John Redworth
They basically do spend about 10th of their time doing this… they are also busy trying to ban things like school plays, video games and trying to re-establish religious teachings in schools…
Richard Bottoms
Ha Ha
— Nelson Muntz
http://www.snpp.com/guides/nelson.file.html
Richard Bottoms
Totally agree.
I have no sympathy for their agony over the state of the Republican party. These dickheard are you creation, not mine.
As a friend recently said, kiss my entire ass.
Richard Bottoms
Woo Hoo. I can’t wait until they start going after contraceptives for adult women. You know they will, it’s an overreach they just cannot avoid making because they are so certain of being morally right about it.
When the Christine Whitman’s of the party have to weigh politcal power versus getting knocked up, well it won’t be pretty.
Louise
This is as it should be. If abortion is murder, it’s murder, no matter how or why the sperm and egg got together. I’ve got no patience for “right-to-lifers” who try to make themselves feel better by adding exceptions. Even “health of the mother” — hell, the mother has had a lot of years to sin, while the embryo/fetus is clean as a whistle. Clearly, if you have to choose, it’s the sinful mother who should have to die.
And I’m with Alan and RichardBottoms — bring it on. I think John is right; let’s get some of this stuff legislated so people can see the impact of voting for these assholes.
Caveat: I would hope that, should this pass in SD or anywhere else, a well-run underground railroad would be there to help as many girls and women as possible, until the dickwads could be defeated.
Richard 23
“States rights” seems to be more about the state’s rights than individual rights. One is either pro-choice or pro-coathanger (or pro-knitting needle). Which are you?
tb
I think their thinking runs more along the lines of heaping negative consequences on whore women who dare to have non-marital sex, and making wives subservient to their husbands and the state. They’re very anti- any practical means of reducing the number of abortions that doesn’t involve the submission of women.
This “caring for the child” nonsense is totally off the radar.
Jack Roy
I gotta say, I’m underwhelmed, if this is accurate:
A bill that would ban nearly all abortions, I should think would be concerning. But a bill that would nearly ban all abortions is about as troubling as a bill nearly banning any abortions—that is to say, almost but not quite really banning any abortions.
The original understanding of the Constitution forbade dangling modifiers, damnit!
Barry D
Jackmormon Says:
“Oh, Jesus. A friend of mine mentioned this at dinner tonight, but I hadn’t heard of it before then. We’re single women living in New York State; we’ll probably be okay when the inevitable happens. Lower-income women—especially lower-income under 18 year-old women—who happen to live in conservative states: they’ll be bearing that child to term.
States’ rights, my ass. I should hope that anyone who has the vestige of sympathy for this Federalist argument would also support a woman’s ability to travel somewhere where her desire to end her pregnancy might still be legal. I don’t count on this legal consistency, however; the next step is to make interstate travel in order to pursue an abortion a crime. Or just really, really inconvenient.”
Jackmormon, do you really see the GOP letting states’ rights stop them from banning abortion nationwide (with extraterritoriality clauses, as well)?
If Roe v Wade is overturned, the only reason that a flat-out federal ban wouldn’t be immediately passed is due to GOP fear of an immediate backlash. And that could be averted by slicing abortion rights to death piece by piece, so that there are no headlines.
Krista
Jeez, I’m gonna get rich off of this. Blackmail birth control pills from Canada. Ladies, send your three easy payments of $39.99 US, and receive a years’ worth of Triphasil. I’ll even throw in a decorative carrying case. (American flag pattern not available at this time.)
StupidityRules
A threat more dangerous than terrorists. Obviously the government should be allowed to open any mail and search for illegal birth controls. If they find any the person that the package is addressed to should be prosecuted for attempted possession with intent to distribute/use an illegal murder weapon.
And while we’re at it. Pregnant women should not be allowed to leave the country unless they promise not to have an abortion. If they do, they should be prosecuted for first degree murder. They should also have to pee on a stick every time they want to leave the country. Just to be sure.
Krista
BlackmailBlack MARKET birth control pills from Canada.Gad…
Lee
Actually I was thinking that ALL women should be required to pee on a stick every 2 weeks or so (actually maybe a blood test since that is more accurate). We want to make sure that if they are pregnant that they can be held responsible if anything happens to the little voter.
Krista
Lee – for the love of mike, don’t give them ideas!
Moe
http://moethesleaze.blogspot.com/
Please visit and give YOUR views regarding abortion rights and how society should resolve the competing ideas.