South Dakota Bans Abortion

South Dakota passes abortion ban (Reuters)

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (Reuters) — South Dakota became the first U.S. state to pass a law banning abortion in virtually all cases, with the intention of forcing the Supreme Court to reconsider its 1973 decision legalizing the procedure.

The law, which would punish doctors who perform the operation with a five-year prison term and a $5,000 fine, awaits the signature of Republican Gov. Michael Rounds and people on both sides of the issue say he is unlikely to veto it.

Obviously this is an indication that a major political battle is afoot, assuming the law passes and is challenged in federal court. Unfortunately for all thinking people, it will be a battle that will be based more on emotions, partisan rhetoric, and religious dogma than on biology or issues of embryonic development.

FILED UNDER: Health, Political Theory, Religion, Supreme Court, , , , ,
Leopold Stotch
About Leopold Stotch
“Dr. Leopold Stotch” was the pseudonym of political science professor then at a major research university inside the beltway. He has a PhD in International Relations. He contributed 165 pieces to OTB between November 2004 and February 2006.

Comments

  1. floyd says:

    so who will win the battle? the great superior elite snobbery or the filthy stupid hoi-polloi?

  2. The end is nigh! Somehow, I expect the pro-life and the pro-choice forces to each say that now.

  3. none says:

    The real travesty is that with all the REAL problems we have, this is what occupies so much time, money and effort.

    “Humans are a virus on the planet”

  4. John Burgess says:

    One of the issues that might prove interesting to examine is that of the Constitution. Are there state’s rights or not? Just where do we draw the line?

  5. Christopher says:

    “The real travesty is that with all the REAL problems we have, this is what occupies so much time, money and effort.”

    Gee, maybe our “real problems” stem from our allowing of the wholesale slaughtering the life that God has created in the womb’s of women. What a disgusting mark in the history of humans.

  6. none says:

    Yea Christopher? Where is your god when you need him eh?

    Give me a break! 60 million people die of starvation each year and this is what you worry about. Again, where is your god?

  7. Jack Ehrlich says:

    Hey None, there is a God, and it is not you.

  8. Herb says:

    Looks like “none” is exactly that. NONE

  9. McGehee says:

    I have to admit, I like None’s imitation of Edward G. Robinson’s character in The Ten Commandments. That and the fact I may be the only one who detected it.

  10. none says:

    Looks like I hit a nerve. Riddle me this Batman, what kind of god do you imagine that would allow all of the disease, death, misery, cruelty and destruction that surrounds us?

    I’m not saying there is no god, just that there is no anthropomorphic, supreme being watching out for us. You beg to differ? Where’s your evidence? The evidence to the contrary is pretty compelling.

    “show me the money”

  11. yetanotherjohn says:

    Sen. Tim Johnson has to be sweating bullets on whether this case will be heard by the supremes before or after November 2008.

  12. Christopher says:

    God is here. Its us people that allow the bad things to happen. We live in a reality-based world, with free choice. We are not gold fish waiting for a giant hand to swoop down and feed us fish food. Want God’s help? Worship God and pray to Him. He has a plan, and we have free choice to follow His plan or not.

    Evidence of God? Look all around you. Look for it and you will find it.

    Finally, read John 3:16. We are all here on earth for a very short time, and God through His son Jesus offers us everlasting life. All you have to do is believe. It is that simple.

  13. G A PHILLIPS says:

    MR. None, God looks out for those who ask him to,God looks out for those who obey him, did he not say that the sick and suffering would always be? all that is evil we bring to ourselves or some one that is evil brings to us. A question to you, what happened when Christian’s finally created a country where in that every one who lives in it has God’s sacred choice to chose to truly worship him? does it show you any evidence of what the true power of God given free will can do or will you just remain another blind donkey driven be just another muleskinner? And if you do not see that the murder of the unborn is one of the things that happens when you receive the true free will of God and use it for your own purpose Instead of the purpose that God has laid out for us, I think that You will not see much more then what you want to before it is to late, but I will pray for you my friend, and hold out hope for you, because I know that God holds the door open for all of you in the hope that one day you will return his love.

  14. none says:

    Wow, kicked up a hornets nest. I feel like Rumsfeld doing a flyover of Bagdad.

    Guys, please actually read what I wrote. I didn’t say there was no god. I said I can find no evidence for an “interactive” god of the type you espouse. “Look around”, yes, as I look around what I see is the world in all it’s wonders. Do I see the works of a supreme being that interacts with it? No. I ask again, where is the evidence of god’s personal intervention here on earth?

    I should pray huh? I’ve seen enough people in pain and suffering to know that prayer is not answered. If that were true, we would live in a perfect world because of the sheer magnitude of prayers that wish for world peace, end of hunger and disease etc. Are any of these prayers answered? Thought not.

    And remember, it wasn’t too long ago that people were building temples to Zeus and Athena complete with prayer, ceremony, clerics etc. All of a sudden what they worshipped for hundreds if not thousands of years is just BS? But yours is the truth. Sorry, I don’t believe that any human can know or write the truth of god and any who claims to know the truth is fooling only themselves. They may completely believe what they’ve been told, but they don’t KNOW. They have no direct knowledge. Well maybe the televangelists do, or so they say…

  15. G A PHILLIPS says:

    None, You should have paid more attention to what I typed, God said there would always be such things. I am trying to help you, not attack you, please read my post again, you have totally missed what I was typing to you. And forgive me, I guess I am not as clear as I want to be, but I do know one thing, the more you reject the teachings of the Holy Spirit the harder it will be for you to understand them.

  16. none says:

    GA,

    Please. I am at peace with myself and my god. I have no need or desire for yours. Yours, in my view, is a vain, temperamental and vindictive god. “Holy scripture” is just that – wholly written by man for man.

    Again, where’s your proof otherwise? By the way, a water stain in the outline of the virgin mary is not proof. If all you can tell me is that you believe it to be true, then fine, tell me “this is what I believe” but don’t tell me “this is the word of god.”

    And as far as the “poor and sick will always be with us” BS, if this guy was truely all powerful and compassionate, he could and would fix it. And if he indeed created us, why did he do such a bad job of it?

  17. Nothing like a blog post comment thread to quickly wrap up thorny theological problems that have troubled the best theological minds of mankind since before the written word.

    Mr. None, do you actually listen to the answers that come back when you ask these “impossible” questions? Or perhaps your immense belief in your own certitude allows you to deem such answers as so much chaff in the wind. Really, it’s ok to ask hard questions, but when they are presented like this to call them rhetorical is to be overly generous.

  18. none says:

    Charles, if you read the entire thread you will see how we got here. I originally started by saying that human suffering might be better served if all of the anti/pro abortion efforts were turned towards something that could make a real and larger impact on the world. What I got back, was the same old gobbledygook about God and the unborn child. Naturally, it degenerated from there into my standard response “what god” and “what god would allow this.”

    I don’t believe these are impossible questions, I believe they are simply personal. that’s why I get so bent when people want to inflict their POV on me. In other words, you don’t want an abortion, don’t get one but please don’t presume that your decision applies or should apply to me. If that were true, I’ve got plenty of ideas I’d like to have implemented.

  19. Anderson says:

    Well, we know what the S.D. legislature thinks of Justices Alito and Roberts.

  20. Christopher says:

    Hey none, if I want to kill somebody, why is it illegal? To carry your argument, anybody can do anything to anybody else.

    Killing a baby is KILLING! Murder!

  21. none says:

    Christopher,

    Get a grip. An embryo is not a baby. A baby is someONE. Embryos are aborted all the time, just ask anyone who’s trying to get pregnant. Miscarriages happen very frequently even late in the term. Who are you going to blame for that, god?

    Also, my opinion is that there are too damn many people on the planet already and it’s only going to get worse. What then? We’re due for 6.5 billion this summer. How about 10 billion, 20 billion? At some point your arguments will fail to meet with reality and we will all be limited in the number of children we can have both through sterilization and abortion. Not now, but soon. What will you say then? Will it still be murder or a matter of survival?

  22. G A PHILLIPS says:

    “People want to inflict their POV on me” “Gobbledygook” OK, None, I got a kid at my work place he cries about Bush taking our rights away I try to tell him the truth, he tells me to shut up. You ask us about God, and we try tell you the truth, you tell us to shut up. But you’re smarter then God and a deeper thinker then me. You’re just another lost Lib in the sea of the great blue hell, and your not even as deep a thinker as Ken. Dude, I was trying to throw you a life line, but now it’s on, so get your hip waders and your donkeypoo shovel ready.

  23. none says:

    GA,

    Never said I was smarter then [sic] god, just that I felt perfectly capable of making up my own mind instead of “settling” for others opinions. And I don’t want or need your “lifeline” which I consider to be a one way ticket to having no responsibility for my own actions and life.

    Just my opinion.

  24. floyd says:

    none; Whoa—dude, you like UH…remember building temples to zues and athena? duuude!! you must be like really old, like UH.. forty or something! that athena chick; was she hot? like UH..a goddess or something?

  25. eNone says:

    floyd…bedtime.