The Beginning of the End of Choice?

Maybe it's because I'm being too Pollyanna about things, but I have a hard time believing that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. This new law in South Dakota, however, is certainly the right's attempt to make that happen. Let's not allow that, shall we?

PRIVACY -- SOUTH DAKOTA PASSES ABORTION BAN WITH NO EXCEPTIONS FOR RAPE OR INCEST: Yesterday, South Dakota's governor signed into law a bill that bans virtually all abortions in the state, with an exception only if the mother's life is at risk. But most "polls show that between 70 and 80 percent of the public support access to safe and legal abortion in at least the case of rape and incest," notes Kate Looby of Planned Parenthood. The South Dakota law is based upon misguided assumptions by lawmakers such as Rep. Bill Napoli (R), who said most abortions are done out of "convenience." But on PBS Newshour, Napoli said he could see an exception being made for rape victims if the girl "was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated." Rep. Roger Hunt (R), the main sponsor of the legislation, notes a hypocritical "gray area" he carved into the bill for victims of rape and incest: a woman who goes to the emergency room immediately after being raped would be able to use emergency contraception, but she would have to do it "within the first few days after the assault, before any test can determine whether she was pregnant in the first place. The lawmakers concluded that it's OK for a rape victim to have an abortion, so long as she doesn't know for certain that she's doing it." But South Dakota's new law still criminalizes a woman's right to choose. Seven other states are now considering similar abortion bans. Take action for women's rights here.

(From today's American Progress Report)