The Abortion Battle Heats Up - South Dakota Abortion Law

Despite signing a bill into law that will effectively prevent all abortions in his state, South Dakota, Governor Mike Rounds has little hope that it will actually go into effect. As he says in his CNN interview:

“In the history of the world, the true test of a civilization is how well people treat the most vulnerable and most helpless in their society,” said a statement released by Rounds, a Republican.

“The sponsors and supporters of this bill believe that abortion is wrong because unborn children are the most vulnerable and most helpless persons in our society. I agree with them.”

The new law is set to take effect on July 1, but Gov. Rounds expects legal action before that. He adds that he expects this will go all the way to the Supreme Court and will take many years.

So does he have a political agenda here, other than the issue at hand? Is he running for higher office? Is this a way to get into the Presidential race? This is, after all, a dividing issue for the nation… Now there are two new Justices, will this be the one time in 39 that Roe vs. Wade might be overturned?

Or is he motivated by some religious fundamentalism? He is a Republican Governor after all. Looking at his history he seems a dedicated public servant, serving as a state representative, and then as State Majority Leader. His resume has a lot of school related issues on it, repealing old laws, increasing funding, quite admirable stuff.

Interestingly the only exceptions to Gov. Rounds‘ law would be medical necessity. Not even rape or incest would be included as reasons to carry out an abortion – talk about a little extreme Governor! As Left on the Lake points out (sickeningly I might add) a man who rapes a woman in South Dakota would have equal parental rights to the child that she would be forced to have…

Alas (a blog) points out that Naral and Planned Parenthood have already spoken out against this harsh law. That link to Naral has a letter that you can send to your state’s governor. The link to Planned Parenthood also has some links for you, for donations towards combating this law.

Wonkette has the image that CNN had put up before replacing it with Gov. Rounds‘ pic. Seems to me like they’re trying to draw conclusions that just aren’t there. Maybe Gov. Rounds isn’t important enough to have a good picture on hand?

Hothouse has a link to a video of a State Senator outlining a scenario in which a women would be raped that would warrant an abortion (but not be permitted under Gov. Rounds‘ law).

Give Up asks what would happen to still births and anencaphaly, has the law taken that into account? Or as I suspect has this just been rushed into the public eye to perhaps use as a rallying call for Republicans in the next elections?

Lastly, I wanted to add my own personal view on the matter. This is part of Gov. Rounds‘ statement:

“We must help each mother to see the value of the gift that is a child, and nurture the mother for her own sake and for the sake of her child..”.

But clearly Gov. Rounds thinks that even in the case of a rape, or horribly, incest, a child is still a “gift”. Maybe Roe vs. Wade wasn’t such a bad thing, Governor. A woman has the right to choose what happens with her body. Why try to change that?

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