Its beginning...

[SuperJerk 0]

South Dakota Senate passes abortion ban bill

Bill meant as a challenge to Roe v. Wade

 

PIERRE, South Dakota (AP) -- Legislation meant to prompt a national legal battle targeting Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, was approved Wednesday by the South Dakota Senate, moving the bill a step closer to final passage.

 

The measure, which would ban nearly all abortions in the state, now returns to the House, which passed a different version earlier. The House must decide whether to accept changes made by the Senate, which passed its version 23-12.

 

"It is the time for the South Dakota Legislature to deal with this issue and protect the lives and rights of unborn children," said Democratic Sen. Julie Bartling, the bill's main sponsor.

 

The bill, carrying a penalty of up to five years in prison, would make it a felony for doctors or others to perform abortions.

 

Bartling and other supporters noted that the recent appointment of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito make the Supreme Court more likely to consider overturning Roe v. Wade.

 

President Bush, a Republican and an abortion foe, might also have a chance to appoint a third justice in the next few years, they said.

 

Opponents argued that the measure was too extreme because it would allow abortions only to save the lives of pregnant women. They said abortion should at least be allowed in cases involving rape, incest and a threat to a woman's health.

 

Planned Parenthood, which operates the only clinic that provides abortions in South Dakota, pledged to challenge the measure in court if it wins final approval from the Legislature and is signed by Gov. Mike Rounds.

 

Rounds, a Republican and a longtime abortion opponent, has said he would "look favorably" on the abortion ban if it would "save life."

 

Other state legislatures are considering similar measures. But South Dakota is the only state so far to pass such an abortion ban, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization in New York and Washington, D.C.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/22/dak...n.ap/index.html

 

With the abortion balance of power shifting with Alito's confirmation from 6-3 to 4-5, challenges to Roe v. Wade were inevitable. I still believe it is the biggest goal or the religious conservatives in America to outlaw abortion, despite the fact there's no definitive proof when exactly life begins.

[Karc 0]

Life begins in hell. A hell called planet Earth.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Who would be privy to jail time? The doctor performing or the woman having the abortion?

[The Czech Republic 0]

Who would be privy to jail time? The doctor performing or the woman having the abortion?

From the article, just the doctor.

 

 

Anyway, I'm not a fan of abortion, but this is a very bad idea.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

We have a bill banning abortion pending in Kentucky, too.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

 

I know it's not the Constitution, but I'm surprised more people don't bring up that this is in the Declaration of Independence.

 

Personally, I don't think it will be possible for abortion to ever be fully illegal in this country, because there's too many people who feel it's the right of a woman to terminate the life of another person growing inside her, and the conservatives in this country who are supposedly agaisnt abortion lack the will to do anything substantive about it.

[SuperJerk 0]

The choice of the word "created" really has nothing to do with the issue at hand. And I'm not exactly going along with the idea that a growing mass of cells with human DNA, but incapable of independent thought or the ability to survive on its own, constitutes a person. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. The pro-life people (at least those of the religious persuasion) seem to think that life begins at conception because that's when the "soul" (a religious concept not proven to really exist) enters the body. Since its impossible to prove when life begins one way or the other, we allow women to decide for themselves.

Edited February 24, 2006 by Y2Jerk

[The Metal Maniac 0]

Since its impossible to prove when life begins one way or the other, we allow women to decide for themselves.

 

I'm of the opinion that we'd be better off to err on the side of caution, but I can understand why it's necessary in some cases.

[Prime Time Andrew Doyle 0]

I think opponents to abortion go about this issue the wrong way. Simply put, there is no real reason to bring religion into this argument. Although I am a Catholic, I am not opposed to abortion on religious grounds, rather on a moral/humanetarian(sp?) grounds. People are basically killing what will become a human. And that to me, regardless of my religion, is abhorent

[SuperJerk 0]

I think opponents to abortion go about this issue the wrong way. Simply put, there is no real reason to bring religion into this argument. Although I am a Catholic, I am not opposed to abortion on religious grounds, rather on a moral/humanetarian(sp?) grounds. People are basically killing what will become a human. And that to me, regardless of my religion, is abhorent

 

That's why its a gray area.

[Guest InuYasha]

My personal, religious belief is that a decision like this involves only two people: the women considering the abortion, and God. Everyone else needs to fuck off.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Waste of time, plain and simple. If it even gets to the Supreme Court I don't see Anthony Kennedy siding with the conservative bloc like in 1992 and Roe v. Wade gets upheld 5-4. Nuff' said.

[Boon 0]

"It is the time for the South Dakota Legislature to deal with this issue and protect the lives and rights of unborn children," said Democratic Sen. Julie Bartling, the bill's main sponsor.

Interesting.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

 

Even evil Muslim barbarians, I3K?

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Yep, created the same, just choose to live at a lower level of civilization.

[SuperJerk 0]

Not all of them. The problem is that many who live in the Middle East have brain-washed by their leaders into beleiving some pretty ridicules crap.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Time to invest in coathangers.

[Sideburnious 0]

People can still go get abortions in the states around them though, right?

[EricMM 0]

Yeah but wait until we get the "you can't bring a minor over state lines to get an abortion" laws, or even not a minor...

[The Czech Republic 0]

I guess when you guys said "leaving it up to the states will be a mess," you weren't kidding.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Maybe every other state will do it, so then you'll have this wild and crazy migration pattern of pregnant whores with a fear of coathangers criss-crossing the country in search of a doctor who'll perform the operation they want at a ridiculously high cost.

[The Czech Republic 0]

I hope the tourism bureaus really play it up.

 

Fix the biggest mistake of your life by coming to Vermont!

[Slayer 0]

Come for the abortions, stay for the gay marriage!

[MrRant 0]

But wouldn't the gay marriage somewhat limit the amount of abortions?

[Guest wildpegasus]

My personal, religious belief is that a decision like this involves only two people: the women considering the abortion, and God. Everyone else needs to fuck off.

 

And of course that leaves the baby with no say in the matter. That "logic" is flawed.

 

If I want to die than that's my choice. I don't want that decision taken away from me when I'm in the first real 9 months of my life.

[The Czech Republic 0]

WP abortion joke? too easy

[MrRant 0]

My personal, religious belief is that a decision like this involves only two people: the women considering the abortion, and God. Everyone else needs to fuck off.

 

And of course that leaves the baby with no say in the matter. That "logic" is flawed.

 

If I want to die than that's my choice. I don't want that decision taken away from me when I'm in the first real 9 months of my life.

 

Do you have a fake 9 months of life in there somewhere?

[Guest wildpegasus]

My personal, religious belief is that a decision like this involves only two people: the women considering the abortion, and God. Everyone else needs to fuck off.

 

And of course that leaves the baby with no say in the matter. That "logic" is flawed.

 

If I want to die than that's my choice. I don't want that decision taken away from me when I'm in the first real 9 months of my life.

 

Do you have a fake 9 months of life in there somewhere?

 

Please don't try to be a wise guy in a serious topic.

 

The quote is obviously stating that life begins approximately 9 months before a baby is born as opposed to when your age is actually calculated.

[The Czech Republic 0]

My personal, religious belief is that a decision like this involves only two people: the women considering the abortion, and God. Everyone else needs to fuck off.

 

And of course that leaves the baby with no say in the matter. That "logic" is flawed.

 

If I want to die than that's my choice. I don't want that decision taken away from me when I'm in the first real 9 months of my life.

 

Do you have a fake 9 months of life in there somewhere?

He has a whole fake life somewhere

[Perfxion 0]

This is going to get ugly, because people do not know when to define life as beginning. But these abortons will still happen. The only difference is that the people enter the side door and not the front.

 

Clinton said it best: "We need to keep abortons safe, legal, and rare"