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Thursday, February 23, 2006

While the Bush Administration was selling our ports to Osama Bin Laden's friends, here's what's happening in South Dakota
Posted by Jill | 7:08 PM

I admit I'm a bit late to this particular party, but I have just one thing to say to all the young women who blithely assumed that their right of self-determination over their own bodies would never be taken away from them:

I told you so.

First we had the Supreme Court agreeing to tackle the issue of late-term abortions (and you know perfectly well how that's going to be decided), and now the South Dakota Senate has passed a bill to ban almost all abortions in the state by a vote of 23-12.

House Bill 1215 would ban most abortions in South Dakota.

It now goes back to the House, which passed an earlier version and must now decide whether to accept changes made by the Senate.

The bill would then go to Gov. Mike Rounds.

Republican Sen. Bill Napoli of Rapid City said, "This bill is as straight
forward and as honest as it can be. It just says no more abortions unless the life of the mother is threatened."

Republican Sen. Tom Dempster of Sioux Falls said, "This bill ends up being cold, indifferent and as hostile as any great prairie blizzard that this state has ever seen.''

Democrat Sen. Julie Bartling of Burke said the time is right for the ban on abortion.

“In my opinion, it is the time for this South Dakota Legislature to deal with this issue and protect the rights and lives of unborn children,” she said during the Senate's debate. “There is a movement across this country of the wishes to save and protect the lives of unborn children.”

Republican Sen. Stan Adelstein of Rapid City had tried to amend the bill to include an exception for abortions for victims of rape. The amendment lost 14-21.

“To require a woman who has been savaged to carry the brutal attack result is a continued savagery unworthy of South Dakota,” he said.

Republican Sen. Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown objected.

Rape should be punished severely, he said, but the amendment is unfair to “some equally innocent souls who have no chance to stand and defend themselves.”

The Senate also defeated a proposed amendment to insert an exception to allow an abortion to protect the health of a pregnant woman. That was offered by Republican Sen. David Knudson. It failed on a 13-22 vote.

Senators who favor the ban on abortion also killed an amendment that would have sent the issue to a public vote and another amendment that would have created a special abortion litigation fund to accept donations to pay for a lawsuit.

House Bill 1215 seeks to make abortion a felony but wouldn't allow charges to be filed against a doctor who performed the procedure during an attempt to save the life of a pregnant woman.

The bill, largely drawn from the findings of the recent South Dakota abortion task force, is meant to encourage the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States.


And this will probably be their test case. I doubt the Supreme Court will vote to overturn Roe, but what's to keep them from upholding this case while leaving Roe intact? Sure, it doesn't make any sense, but what in the mind of Antonin Scalia does?

The right wing seems to have this idea that all over America, there are pregnant women who wake up in the morning and say, "I think I'll go get my hair cut, then go grocery shopping, then have my nails done, and then have an abortion." The idea that abortion is an easy thing for a woman to do is an idea that only someone who a) hates women; b) has no understanding of women; or c) is an utter moron; could possibly believe.

It's funny how few of the people who want to ban abortions have actually adopted any unwanted babies. It's funny how the legislators who are the most anti-abortion are the same ones who vote to cut women with young children off of public assistance programs designed to help them raise the children these same legislators would force them to have.

Here's the bill in its entirety. I am just too tired this evening to go on my customary rant about fear and loathing of female sexuality driving this whole debate, so I'll just repost this little excerpt, because this is going to leave every woman who has a menstrual period open to prosecution:

The Legislature accepts and concurs with the conclusion of the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion, based upon written materials, scientific studies, and testimony of witnesses presented to the task force, that life begins at the time of conception, a conclusion confirmed by scientific advances since the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade, including the fact that each human being is totally unique immediately at fertilization.


The South Dakota bill defines fertilization, not implantation, as conception. Up to 40% of fertilized eggs never implant, and are passed with the normal menstrual flow. If these fertilized eggs are deemed to be human beings, it opens the door to a great many unintended consequences. One of those consequences is inevitably the banning of certain methods of contraception that prevent implantation, which include the pill and all hormonal contraceptive derivations thereof and the intrauterine device. This will leave women with only barrier methods, such as diaphragms and condoms.

But that's not the only implication of this bill. I've been making jokes for years about women having to submit their used tampons to the government so they can be inspected for fertilized eggs that didn't implant. But if the state is going to define a fertilized egg -- not an implanted embryo -- as a human being, I don't see where there's any choice but to interrogate, investigate and examine every woman who has a menstrual period to make sure that no fertilized eggs are involved.

And frankly, if this isn't what they advocate, then their entire argument about every fertilized egg being the equivalent of thee and me falls apart.
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