Posted on 02/28/2006 6:36:43 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
US President George W. Bush signalled his opposition to a South Dakota abortion ban that forbids the procedure even in cases of rape or incest, saying he favors such exceptions.
But Bush declined to predict the outcome of any legal challenges to the legislation, which would make it illegal to terminate a pregnancy except in rare cases when it may be necessary to save the life of the mother.
"That, of course, is a state law, but my position has always been three exceptions: Rape, incest, and the life of the mother," the US president told ABC news in an interview.
Asked whether he would include "health" of the mother, Bush replied: "I said life of the mother, and health is a very vague term, but my position has been clear on that ever since I started running for office."
The bill, which recently gained final approval from South Dakota's House of Representatives, directly contradicts the precedent set in 1973 when the US Supreme Court ruled that bans on abortion violate a woman's constitutional right to privacy.
The bill grants no allowances for women who have been raped or are victims of incest. Doctors who perform abortion would be charged with a crime. It also prohibits the sale of emergency contraception and asserts that life begins at fertilization.
The governor of South Dakota has indicated he is likely to sign the bill.
A leading pro-choice advocacy group has already vowed to challenge the ban in federal court. But that seems to be exactly what many promoters of the legislation seek.
Advocates of the ban do not deny they aim much higher than South Dakota, a rural and socially conservative state, which even today has only one abortion clinic.
Instead, they are hoping the bill will offer a full frontal assault on legal abortions now that the balance of power in the Supreme Court appears to have shifted with the confirmation of conservative jurists John Roberts and Samuel Alito, both of whom are seen as pro-life.
Who claimed the President changed his position? Look, I'm with you on rape and incest exception, but I will call fouls on both sides of this debate as I see them.
The morning after pill IS NOT an abortion pill, it works by preventing the release of an egg. So unless your defintion of abortion is preventing the egg and sperm from meeting the morning after pill IS NOT ABORTION.
This has been President Bush's stance from the git-go. Why is everyone falling out with the red a$$ now like it's a big surprise? Never mind.
I hadn't heard that saying but it sure is a good one.
This is the pro life movements nuclear option.
Yeah. I think South Dakota erred in their politics but I give them an A+ for consistency of thought.
you nailed it there.
Is it pro-abortion to ban 99.99999% of abortions?
I've yet to meet someone in real life that thought like some of these keyboard clowns do here. I'm a guy, course you knew that already, and I believe Bush's position is consistent with his stated position going into the 2000 elections, and that rape and incest are reasonable exceptions.
As Torie pointed out, the Republican party is not a monolithic party.
FR has shown, even in this thread, not even Conservatives are monolithic. Rush even demonstrated that today on his show, reacting to a Buckley piece in NRO regarding the Iraq War. (which Buckley said we're losing).
Even the writers at NRO don't see eye-to-eye on the same issues day in and day out.
There are freepers on this thread who have indicated the president is drinking, has abandoned his base on this issue, etc. Those are the people who are pretending the president has changed his position in this.
Agree, but this "abortion in the case of rape" thing is nothing more than a red herring.
How many of the approximately 1.5 million abortions annually in the States are a result of a "rape situation?"
I bet it's in the hundreds or even less making it statistically insignificant. Yet, it's often what drives the issue.
It's tough seeing the people you would like people to have the right to kill, isn't it?
yeah....
you know, instead of acting from a position of logical and reason, which some have on this thread, others are taking the typical knee-jerk approach which is really becoming more of an attribute of the RIGHT instead of the LEFT wing.....
Yep you could be wrong
Pro-Abortion is saying it is okay to kill a child because the dad raped somebody.
Yep that is pro-abortion. Killing is killing is killing is killing. SPIN it any way you like. Most do.
The morning after pill will abort a fertilized egg too.
Just reading between the lines. Don't you think if some rape victim was dragged into certain church services, attended by some posters here, and proclaimed her desire to carry some genetically defective fetus to term, there wouldn't be Hallelujahs and Hosannas? Of course there would.
It's "Legislating by exception" at its finest as I say.
Better than the absurd legal contradiction of the man who gets arrested if he accidentally hits a pregnant woman on her way to an abortion and kills the baby.
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