Planned Parenthood South Dakota Plans to Defy Law, Continue Committing Abortions

LifeSiteNews ^ | 3/9/06 | Terry Vanderheyden

[wagglebee]

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota, March 9, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota (PPMNS) said it will defy a law passed Monday that bans all abortions in the state.

“We will not abandon the women of South Dakota,” said Sarah Stoesz, PPMNS President and CEO, according to a release. “Our clinics in South Dakota will remain open and we will continue to serve the women and men of this state by providing family planning services, emergency contraception, and safe, legal abortion care.”

On Monday, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signed into law the first abortion ban in the United States since the 1973 Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade decision. The bill, House Bill 1215, passed with strong bi-partisan support in both houses and makes abortion a felony in the state, punishable by up to five years imprisonment. It is to go into effect this July.

Stoesz also vowed to challenge the new law in court. “Planned Parenthood will challenge this law in order to protect the health and rights of the women and families we serve,” she said.

Meanwhile, a South Dakota pro-life advocate who was instrumental in promoting the law there was the victim of harassment and vandalism. Leslee Unruh, who founded the Alpha Center to encourage pregnant women to choose life, told Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink news that her family has become a target from pro-abortion zealots.

Unruh related to CitizenLink how her home has been splattered with eggs and that coat hangers have been left in their mailbox. Her husband’s chiropractic office has also been targeted by pro-aborts leaving dead animals on the grounds, with some employees afraid to come into work. She was even told by her favorite coffee shop not to come back.

“They said, ‘We have a choice as to who we serve, and we choose not to serve you,’” she related. “They were careful to emphasize the word ‘choice.’”

See CitizenLink coverage:
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039731.cfm

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Abortion Ban Signed into Law by South Dakota Governor
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06030603.html
Complete Ban on Abortion Passes South Dakota Legislature, goes to Governor
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/feb/06022304.html

---

[festus]

Suits me round em up boys.

[Campion]

The SCOTUS has essentially put the matter back in the states' hands. Roe v. Wade as it was originally decided in 1973 doesn't even exist anymore, large parts of it having been supplanted by new case law.

None of the decisions you cite have "put the matter back in the states' hands". No state (according to current case law) is permitted to ban abortion. They are allowed to put into place certain restrictions (parental notification, waiting periods, etc.). That's it. Find me an example of one abortion that the decisions you cite permit a state to ban. There aren't any.

[Lincoln]

I was debugging your code and it appears that line 110 is unreachable! Also, the latter part of line 100 only needs to be run once; successive attempts will only eat processor time, giving nothing back.

[jf55510]

Please find me the section of the Constitution that indicates that the Supreme Court has the authority to decide what is and isn't constitutional.

Article III, sec. 2

Please find me the section of the Constitution that indicates that there is a right to privacy.

9th Amendment

Please find me the section of the Constitution that says that a state cannot pass new laws.

No one is saying that they can't pass new laws.

[wagglebee]

You are possibly correct regarding Article III, Section 2.

To say there is a right to privacy in the 9th Amendment is a stretch.

[wrathof59]

I think the status quo where abortion before viability is legal..

That's the crux of the argument today, due to advances in medicine since Roe, a fetus can be sustained outside of the womb after 20 (?) weeks, hence it's viable at that point.

Abortion on demand has ripped the fabric of this society apart, that fabric is basic respect for human life. Period. The sooner Roe v. Wade is overtirned, the better off our future generations will be.

[LiteKeeper]

Murder, Inc - go for it!

[Sandy]

Uh, you seriously need to get up to date on the law. Please see Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990), Ohio v Akron Ctr for Reproductive Health (1990), and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).

The SCOTUS has essentially put the matter back in the states' hands.

Uh, actually it's you who seriously needs to get up to date on the law. Please see Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), especially Justice Kennedy's dissent, which spells out what you've apparently missed since Casey.

[T]he Court ... contradicts Casey’s premise that the States have a vital constitutional position in the abortion debate. ... [R]equiring a State to meet unattainable standards of statutory draftsmanship in order to have its voice heard on this grave and difficult subject is no different from foreclosing state participation altogether. ...

The United States District Court in this case leaped to prevent the law from being enforced, granting an injunction before it was applied or interpreted by Nebraska. In so doing, the court excluded from the abortion debate not just the Nebraska legislative branch but the State’s executive and judiciary as well. The law was enjoined before the chief law enforcement officer of the State, its Attorney General, had any opportunity to interpret it. The federal court then ignored the representations made by that officer during this litigation. In like manner, Nebraska’s courts will be given no opportunity to define the contours of the law, although by all indications those courts would give the statute a more narrow construction than the one so eagerly adopted by the Court today. Thus the court denied each branch of Nebraska’s government any role in the interpretation or enforcement of the statute. This cannot be what Casey meant when it said we would be more solicitous of state attempts to vindicate interests related to abortion. Casey did not assume this state of affairs.

[Salvation]

Stand across the street and pray! Prayer will shut the PP down!

Lawrence (KS) abortion clinic closes because of funding woes

Eugene abortion clinic closes; surprising many (Hooray !!!)

Prayer credited for closing of abortion clinic [Eugene, OR]

Planned Parenthood will shut down 3 clinics [Indiana]

Persevering Students Help Close Abortion Clinic [Santa Paula, CA--Thomas Aquinas College]

Abortion Clinic Managers Quit After Being Outed by Operation Rescue [Wichita, Kansas]

One Man's God Squad: Troy Newman's plan to stop abortions in Wichita, Kansas

Baby Saved From Abortion is Baptized [New Orleans]

Thank You Bishop Rhoades: A Personal Account of An Abortion Protest With A Catholic Bishop -- still praying -- Harrisburg, PA

Judges rule civil suits against Planned Parenthood can proceed [Los Angeles, CA]

STOPP Planned Parenthood

CA: Abortion opponents hope to limit access for California girls (Prop 73)

Jill Stanek's Accurate Summary of Cincinnati Abortion Center Closing: 'Debi Does Ohio"

Clinic is caught in the fog of abortion war (Abortion Clinic Closes) [Springfield, Missouri]

PBS program looks at Mississippi's last abortion clinic

[vpintheak]

I suggest camps, camps where they have to clean up the blood and guts of the children they murdered. I will handle the day to day operation myself. Satisfied? I have absolutely no problem with that. A decent law abiding citizen will follow the law of the land. I don't firebomb abotion mills because I don't agree with what they do. No go find someone else to play with.

[Threepwood]

Sad but true. The appetite for these services, depraved as they are, would shock you out of your shoes.

[TampaDude]

Uh, actually it's you who seriously needs to get up to date on the law. Please see Stenberg v. Carhart (2000), especially Justice Kennedy's dissent, which spells out what you've apparently missed since Casey.

Uh, nope...I haven't missed a thing. That was a ruling regarding the Nebraska Attorney General acting ultra vires (exceeding the boundaries of his power) with regards to abortion law in Nebraska. The Court held that the Nebraska statute violated Casey and Roe, and was therefore unconstitutional. The part you quoted is a DISSENT, and thus not the ruling of the Court. Try again.

[kevkrom]

Evil is an opinion based word.

There is both objective and subjective evil. In general, harming (including enslaving) another person solely for your own personal benefit is an objective "evil" by any definition of the word. Subjective ("opinion based") evil would include violations of moral and ethical codes that are not univerally subscribed to.

[Centurion2000]

bump

[Shalom Israel]

SC decisions do not pre-empt future laws. The states are free to make laws, and SCOTUS is free to bat them down. It's not unusual to make slightly different laws, forcing the SC to pass a new ruling which clarifies some distinction, or to pass essentially the same law, in the hope that SCOTUS will overturn a previous decision.

In this case they're going to be disappointed; once this case reaches the SC, you'll see Roe v. Wade reaffirmed, with Roberts and probably Alito on the majority side.

[thinking]

The line should read....continue to kill unborn human babies...

[Shalom Israel]

This is a giant political game of chess, where both sides are setting traps for the other...

Right. Which is why, even though 99.9+% of abortions are done as birth control, the next court case you see will involve an (alleged) victim of rape or incest.

[mike182d]

Wow. I've never seen it put so...basically. :-)

[Sandy]

The part you quoted is a DISSENT

No kidding. Rule of thumb, when the majority strays from or contradicts precedent, it's the dissent that explains how and why. Anyway, you wrongly claimed that SCOTUS has essentially put the matter back in the states' hands, when in actuality most significant recent abortion legislation has been enjoined by the courts before ever being implemented. Imo, the Stenberg dissents help explain why that's so. YMMV

[cgk]

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