Posted on 02/12/2004 10:05:05 AM PST by presidio9
The South Dakota state House has passed a bill that would outlaw abortion and challenge the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision.
Approved 54 to 14 after two hours of emotional debate Tuesday, the bill would make the practice of abortion a felony carrying a five-year sentence.
A public-interest law firm that worked with lawmakers to draft the bill says it is designed to have the U.S. Supreme Court reconsider its 1973 Roe decision, which struck down state laws banning abortion.
"This is new and unique legislation that has never been considered by the Supreme Court," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. " … While we cannot predict the future, we do know that this legislation establishes significant facts that the courts will not be able to ignore."
House Bill 1191, sponsored by Rep. Matt McCaulley, says the legislature determined that based on the best scientific and medical evidence, life begins at fertilization and that South Dakota's Bill of Rights applies equally to born and unborn human beings.
The bill also finds abortions impose significant risks to the health and life of the pregnant mother, including significant risk of suicide, depression and other post- traumatic disorders.
"Abortion is an important moral issue that transcends party lines," McCaulley said. "Protecting unborn human life is something the vast majority of South Dakota residents support, and Democrats and Republicans joined together and passed a bill that will protect unborn human life in our state. We are ready to fight for the right to life, as opposed to waiting for it."
The bill now goes to the Senate where support continues to be strong, the More Center said, noting South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds is pro-life.
The bill requires physicians to make every effort to preserve the life of both the mother and her unborn child.
Committee testimony on the bill included women who recounted their personal grief, severe depression and thoughts of suicide after having an abortions. Planned Parenthood representatives strongly opposed the measure, but the panel passed it 11-2, sending it to the House for Tuesday's vote.
If this is what the bill says, then it is also outlawing some forms of contraception like the pill.
What makes you say that? Have voters ever turned out on a national scale to support abortion? Sure, a staunch pro-life policy would guarantee losses in NY, Mass, and Cal, but Bush would likely have lost those states anyway. Americans favor limiting abortion by a large margin.
If these are the most important issues to the new conservatives, I don't want to be a part of them. Abortion is murder, the fact that we have Pro-Choice Republicans and even Pro-Choice FReepers shows that TRUE conservative principles mean nothing anymore.
So they could butcher children?
Your statements backup my feelings about the moral decline of the Republican party, and the lack of any chance of restoring the GOP to the conservative principles it once held dear.
Really? Seems to me that the state that just outlawed abortion has two Democrat Senators. My view is that people who are pro-life are much more likely to go the polls on this issue than people who are pro abortion. Maybe abortion has never been the "centrist" issue leftists have made it out to be. It has never been put forward as a national election issue. Legalized abortion was legislated by the Court.
That's doubtful, since the whole coat hanger thing was made up by Dr. Bernard Nathanson and the pro-abortion-legalization crowd back in the early '70s. He's admitted it since repudiating his former position.
You're right about individual states legalizing it. But the situation would be far better than what we have now. Besides, you're buying the media propaganda about American support for abortion. The majority of people oppose abortion, and that's after 30 years of steady pro-abortion propaganda. Shining light on the issue will change everything. How do I know? I can tell you that 85% of women who go into a crisis pregnancy center planning on aborting their child (they want confirmation of the pregnancy before handing over $300 to Planned Parenthood) change their minds after seeing the ultrasound (as opposed to a 10% turnaround rate when they don't see the child).
Matthew 25:40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
If sodomy is legal everywhere then certainly the gestation stage of life is the same everywhere too.
And yet Michigan's self-proclaimed "Catholic" governor still has the raw nerve to accept communion on Sundays.
Thank you for bringing this point up. Voters, after all, had nothing to do with Roe v. Wade. I wish it were put to a vote. I may be wearing rose-tinted glasses but I do believe that abortion would be outlawed if it were left up to the people to decide.
(one of your favorite quotes from your profile)
I doubt that President Reagan was only talking about grandchildren that were lucky enough not to be aborted.
If someone is pro-choice they can be a part of any party they want to and vote for whoever they want to, but it doesn't change the fact that they support butchering innocent children, and are WRONG!
There ARE absolute truths in life, and murdering innocent children IS absolutly WRONG!
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