A Warning From South Dakota

[cal04]

When President Bush's Supreme Court nominees were asked about abortion and Roe v. Wade, their answers ranged from vague to opaque. But the state legislature in South Dakota felt it heard the underlying message loud and clear. Now, South Dakota has thrown down the gauntlet. It adopted a law last week that makes every abortion that is not necessary to save the life of the mother a crime. The law is clearly unconstitutional under existing Supreme Court rulings. But its backers are hoping that the addition of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the court will be enough to change things.

The law should be struck down because it imposes an unacceptable burden on women. But it should also serve as a warning that the threat to abortion rights has reached a new level. South Dakota's abortion law is the most restrictive one adopted by any state since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. It does not contain exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or from incest. Nor does it allow abortions that are necessary to preserve the health of the mother. The law is unlikely to go into force anytime soon. If it did, it would simply drive women — as in the pre-Roe days — to risk their lives to end their pregnancies with illegal back-alley abortions.

Gov. Mike Rounds, who signed the bill into law, said that the "true test of a civilization" was how it treated "the most vulnerable and helpless," including "unborn children." But his state has hardly been a leader in protecting vulnerable children who have left the womb. The nation's three worst counties for child poverty at the time of the last census were all in South Dakota, according to the Children's Defense Fund. Buffalo County, home to the Crow Creek Indian Reservation, was dead last.

(snip)
The test seems premature, since even if both men voted to overturn Roe there would still only be four votes. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a moderate conservative, has sided with the court's four liberals on this point. But abortion opponents may be hoping he can be pressured to change. They have also begun predicting that Justice John Paul Stevens, the oldest member, will leave the court, allowing President Bush to appoint another anti-Roe justice.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/opinion/12sun1.html?hp

[babylonsister]

1. Hypocrisy, anyone? In The Nation, SD has one of the three

worst counties for child poverty?
So religion is fueling this fight, or is it politics? I KNOW it's not ethics!

[megatherium]

7. In biology, some species are referred to as K-strategists, and some are

called r-strategists. K-strategists are species that have few young, but care for them; r-strategists have many young and do not care for them. In politics, Democrats are K-strategists, because they believe in family planning, and programs to help poor children. Republicans are r-strategists: they are against abortion and believe in large families, but oppose government programs to help the poor.

[kestrel91316]

10. Hey, that's unscriptural! You can't say that!

[MuseRider]

2. I'll tell you one other thing that women may

be driven to. Support of concealed weapons.

[Maraya1969]

3. Yes, and while we are at it let's shove a watermelon up Mr.Round's

ass so he can know a little about what it is like to birth a child. Everyone gets their own watermelon: Dobson, Robertson, Falwell, George Fucking Bush.

We can call it EMPATHY TRAINING

[MuseRider]

4. Now there is an idea.

You are never quite the same after birthing those babies are you?

Empathy training. I like it.

[Swamp Rat]

5. Umm, those guys deserve nothing less than HUGH pineapples!

[MuseRider]

11. Oh YES!

I hope you are feeling better today.

A pineapple, lol.

[Swamp Rat]

12. Thanks, but I feel worse.

It has gone to my lungs. :(

[MuseRider]

13. Oh no.

Keep up the fluids. I'm so sorry you are sick. :hug:

Anything we can do besides sending healing thoughts to you?

[Swamp Rat]

14. Compose a three part opera with guitars included in the orchestration?

:D

Thanks for the healing thoughts.... oops! I left my cranberry juice in the other room.

[MuseRider]

15. HA!

Sorry, I could play the clarinet parts for you but I am no composer but my son is!

Cranberry juice is a very good choice. Ahhh, I hate when people get sick. Feel better.

The Rusty Coat Hangers could be a great band name right about now.

[banana republican]

18. pointy ends first I hope n/t

[Cleita]

6. Back in the sixties, I drove through the Crow Creek Indian

Reservation. I couldn't believe I was in America, with the impoverishment I saw. Since then I have seen similar poverty in many other Indian Reservations. Also, it is the poor women in those places who will suffer the most.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. I was at Pine Ridge 2 years ago

and was stunned by what I saw. Just stunned. The year before that I was in NE Arizona and what I saw there was equally shocking.

[babylonsister]

9. So the cause is not religion or politics, but ignorance?

Throw me a bone.

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Neglect

The US govt has treated NAs so poorly that they have evolved into the communities we see today.

[hfojvt]

17. As I have said before

this:
"The law is unlikely to go into force anytime soon. If it did, it would simply drive women — as in the pre-Roe days — to risk their lives to end their pregnancies with illegal back-alley abortions." is simply not true.

Suppose the Supreme Court upholds the SD law. In other words they say the SD state ban is not unconstitutional.

In that worst case, abortion will still be legal in Minnesota. Currently there is 1 abortion provider in SD - Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls. The distance from Sioux Falls to Valley Springs, Mn is only about 20 miles. That does not seem like a huge obstacle for the women of SD if Planned Parenthood sets up shop in Valley Springs.

[Maraya1969]

19. I'm sure people will set up ways to transport those who don't have

the money to get to the clinics that are further away. The scary thing about this is that it has happened. And that it happened right after Alito was confirmed. And right after Dobson said Alito was the right man for the job.

I still think they will end up destroying themselves. Look how many followers they have lost. I'd love to know the stats for the last 5 years for + or - Christianity. Between 1990 and 2000 Christianity was up 5% but the total of all others, including the ones that lost followers was +153%. So basically all their posturing is really not helping their cause.

I believe that Christianity is a wonderful religion when not bastardized by the screwball leaders of today. These people are very much like the Taliban.

[TexasLawyer]

20. Expensive Lawsuit

The state of South Dakota's defense of its new abortion law through the court system is going to be VERY expensive.

The legal defense dollars might have been better spent on SD's poor.