South Dakota's Harsh Law Outlawing Abortion
Background: In February 2006, soon after the installation of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, South Dakota passed a law criminalizing abortion, making no exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. In November 2006 voters had a chance to keep or annul the law. They voted it out by a large margin (see below).
2007-2008: New legislation to ban abortion
South Dakota to Revisit Restrictions on Abortion
By Monica Davey, New York Times, April 26, 2008
Voters in South Dakota this fall will once again be asked to consider a sweeping limit on abortion, the secretary of state announced on Friday. The new proposal is widely seen as a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal.
South Dakota found itself in a similar spot two years ago, when a ballot question on a broad abortion ban turned national attention on the state’s 780,000 residents during an emotional and expensive battle that lasted months and ended with the proposed ban’s defeat.
One element has changed in the question that will appear on the ballot this November: This time the ban includes some exceptions for rape, incest, or the life and health of the mother. Some South Dakotans said the absence of such exceptions led them to vote against the 2006 proposal, which lost by 56 percent to 44 percent. Continue.
South Dakota legislators shaping new abortion ban for 2008 ballot
Summary by JewsOnFirst.org, February 20, 2007
 South Dakota voters resoundingly defeated, thus repealed, a ban on abortion that made no exception for rape or incest. Soon after the launch of the new legislative season this year, members of the lower house introduced "an Act to refer to a vote of the people a bill to regulate the performance of certain abortions, to reinstate the prohibition against certain acts causing the termination of the life of an unborn human being, and to prescribe a penalty therefor."
The new law includes exceptions for rape and incest -- but requires the woman to identify the attacker and the provider to give authorities a DNA sample of the fetus.
The South Dakota House passed the bill, H.R. 1293, on February 12th. A Senate committee will hold hearings on it tomorrow. You can find the text and the legislative history here.
House passes abortion ban
By Bill Harlan, Rapid City Journal, February 15, 2007
PIERRE - A new abortion ban that would go to a statewide vote in 2008 sailed through the South Dakota House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 45-25.
Now, House Bill 1293 goes to the Senate.
Unlike the abortion ban that voters rejected last November, this one has exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother - though opponents of the bill say the conditions for those exceptions are too onerous. Continue.
New South Dakota Abortion Ban Bill Allows Rape, Incest Exceptions
FoxNews.com, Thursday, February 1, 2007
PIERRE, S.D. — A bill to ban abortion introduced Wednesday in the South Dakota state House of Representatives would allow exceptions for rape and incest, but only if the crimes are reported to authorities with DNA evidence.
People who oppose abortion hope the measure becomes the vehicle for a legal challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which legalized abortion broadly across the United States except in the last months of pregnancy. Continue.
 South Dakota Abortion Ban Undergoes Changes
Attorney General introduces new language to help defend the bill
By Bob Ellis, Dakota Voice, February 12, 2007
Some noteworthy changes were introduced to the proposed South Dakota abortion ban today.
Testifying before the House State Affairs committee in support of the ban, HB 1293, were Rep. Gordon Howe (R-Rapid City), Aberdeen attorney Rory King, OB-GYN Dr. Patti Giebink of Chamberlain, pediatrician and neonatologist Dr. Dennis Stevens of Sioux Falls, counselor Dianne Heynen, and South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long.
Testifying against the ban were Rapid City OB-GYN Dr. Marvin Buehner, USD Medical Center emergency physician Dr. Mary Helen Harris, Health Education Resource Center director Charon Asetoyer of Lake Andes, Suzan Nolan of Rapid City, Connie Pich of Rapid City, South Dakota State Medical Association lobbyist Dave Gerdes, Nancy Phipps, and April Tobin of Del Rapids. The House State Affairs committee adopted an amendment that changes the name of HB 1293 from "Women's Health and Human Life Protection" to "Prevention of Abortion as Birth Control".
The "hoghouse" change, which essentially guts the original bill and replaces the language with something new, was done by the South Dakota Attorney General to make the bill more defensible against court challenge. Continue.
South Dakota Lawmakers Push for New Abortion Ban With Exceptions
by Wendy Cloyd, Focus on the Family, January 30, 2007
After a near total ban on abortion failed to gain voter approval, lawmakers now hope to at least restrict the killing of the preborn.
A group of South Dakota legislators announced the introduction of new legislation that would limit access to abortion services. The proposal would outlaw the practice except in cases of rape, incest or the health of the mother. It would also tighten laws that require abortion providers to report rape and incest to the proper authorities.
The Legislature passed an abortion ban last year with only an exception for the life of the mother. But a petition drive placed the measure on the November ballot. The ban failed to gain approval -- only 45 percent voted in favor. Continue.
Voters defeat abortion law
South Dakota abortion ban, Arizona gay marriage ban fail
Daniel C. Vock, Stateline.org, November 8, 2006
Arizona has become the first state in the country to reject a ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage, on the same night that South Dakota voters refused to make their state a test case in the fight to outlaw abortion.
South Dakota voters pulled the plug on an attempt to challenge the landmark abortion case of Roe v. Wade, as citizens there overrode a law that would have banned abortion in that state. In a ballot campaign that drew nationwide attention and dollars, opponents of the ban succeeded in taking it off the books by a vote of 56 percent to 44 percent with 99 percent of votes tallied.
The gay marriage vote in Arizona is likely to capture national attention, even as seven more states on Election Day joined the 20 states that already had passed constitutional prohibitions on gay marriage. Continue
 IRS Clears Faith-Based Groups of Wrongdoing
Focus on the Family, June 19, 2007
Two South Dakota nonprofit organizations targeted by a liberal special-interest group have been cleared of charges they violated their tax-exempt status.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the IRS in which it accused the National Abstinence Clearinghouse and Alpha Center - a pregnancy-resource center - of violating tax laws.
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which represented both groups, said Monday the IRS found no basis for the complaint. Both groups will retain their tax-exempt status.
Gary McCaleb, senior counsel for ADF, called the challenge by CREW another blatant attempt to silence the pro-life, pro-abstinence viewpoint. Continue.
UKOR, or All of One Stripe: Unruh, Kline, Operation Rescue
By cyncooper, Talk2Action, January 3, 2007
An award program concocted by a militant Religious Right organization does more to depict the singular ugly underbelly of the anti-abortion movement than any mere blog could ever do. Next week, Operation Rescue will honor two losers as Man and Woman of 2006: Phill Kline of Kansas and Leslee Unruh of South Dakota. Kline lost as Attorney General after the citizens got fed up with his prying into women's medical records. Unruh was the executive director of the losing campaign to ban abortion in South Dakota.
But it is a measure on its own that the outrageous, militant Operation Rescue is bestowing honors upon them. Continue.
The battle over law moves to November ballot
South Dakota's Abortion Ban Showdown
South Dakotans have come out in force against a draconian abortion ban. Can they stop it before it upends abortion rights throughout the nation?
By Rebecca Clarren, Ms. Magazine via Alternet, October 20, 2006.
Sioux Falls, SD -- College student Dena Gleason, 24, squints at the address on the blue wooden home with the two-car garage, then strolls resolutely toward the front door, armed with an open smile and a clipboard. The smell of freshly mowed grass clings to the thick evening air of midsummer, and the American flag on the porch droops in the heat.
This neighborhood, with its manicured lawns and tree-lined streets, is fit for a Norman Rockwell painting, but to Gleason, a senior at South Dakota State in Brookings, it's simply the staging ground for the most important social battle she's faced in her lifetime. Continue.
South Dakota, abortion the issue
Referendum on ban roils low-key state
By Judy Peres, The Chicago Tribune, October 21, 2006
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- It takes spunk for Katie Andert to sit in the middle of the Commons, day after day, behind a table festooned with signs demanding "Vote No on 6: Repeal the Abortion Ban."
South Dakota is a distinctly conservative state, and the vast majority of its residents will tell you they are "pro-life."
They'll also tell you South Dakotans prize politeness and eschew confrontation. Andert's booth on the Augustana College campus is a bit too in-your-face for most folks. Continue.
TV Ad Hits South Dakota Featuring Ultrasound Images of Children
Christian New Wire, Ocotber 19, 2006
Faith2Action, in partnership with Salt River Production Group and a 4D ultrasound video from Shari Richard, have produced a video ad showing the ‘face of the future’ that will begin airing on South Dakota television this week.
This video can be seen directly from the Faith2Action website www.f2a.org or directly at www.f2a.org/sd It presents 4D ultrasound images of a child at various stages of development - from 10 weeks to 36 weeks in the womb and provides a means for people to put it directly on the air in the state deciding the issue. Continue
Traditional Values Coalition email seeks donations for anti-abortion ad
Email received October 23, 2006
In an email to supporters, the Traditional Values Coalition urged contributions to run a 30-second ad in support of South Dakota's ban on abortion, which is up for voter approval on November 7th. They say time in the South Dakota market is so cheap that $150 will cover the cost of one spot on Good Morning America. The email says: "We have joined with other pro-life groups to air a wonderful 30-second pro-life ad on TV throughout South Dakota in the days leading up to the Nov. 7 vote. The ad shows an ultra-sound photo of an unborn baby at 36 weeks of age." Click here for the full text.
Appeals Court Blocks South Dakota Law on Doctors’ Statement to Seekers of Abortion
By Adam Liptak, The New York Times, October 31, 2006
The federal appeals court in St. Louis yesterday blocked the enforcement of a South Dakota law that would have required doctors there to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure would "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."
Laws requiring mandatory counseling for women seeking abortions, and their informed consent to the procedure, are common. The United States Supreme Court in 1992 and federal appeals courts since then have upheld such laws, which typically require that medical information about the procedure and its health risks be provided to women before they can proceed with it.
The defect in the South Dakota law, said the majority in yesterday’s 2-to-1 decision by a panel of United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, was that it supplemented factual information with a value judgment. Continue.
Federal Appeals Court Rules Against S.D. Informed-Consent Law
Focus on the Family, October 31, 2006
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a lower-court decision stopping a South Dakota law requiring doctors to inform women about the risks of abortion, The Associated Press reported.
The 2005 law would require doctors to tell women that "abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being" and may later cause serious psychological problems.
Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said the court took issue with whether an abortion ends a human life.
"The court called it ideology based on an 'unsettled medical, philosophical, theological and scientific issue,' " he said. "The 2-1 opinion said under previous First Amendment court rulings, an abortionist cannot be compelled to speak the state's political or ideological viewpoint contrary to his or her own." Continue
Pastors plot courses on HB1215
By Mary Garrigan, The Rapid City Journal (Rapid City, South Dakota), July 17, 2006
South Dakotans will take their religious beliefs about abortion into the voting booth with them in November, but area pastors are divided about how they will approach the upcoming referendum on HB1215 in their pulpits. Continue
Abortion petitions in; two issues rejected
38,000 signatures turned in to put ban before voters Foes, advocates see opportunity
By Terry Woster, The Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), May 31, 2006
PIERRE - Opponents of the 2006 Legislature's ban on abortion in South Dakota delivered to the secretary of state Tuesday about 38,000 signatures on a petition to give voters a chance to veto the proposed law.
If Secretary of State Chris Nelson determines that at least 16,728 of the names are registered voters in the state, voters will decide Nov. 7 whether the Legislature was right or wrong in passing a law that makes it a felony in almost all cases for a doctor to perform an abortion. Continue
Ripples From Law Banning Abortion Spread Through South Dakota
By Monica Davey, The New York Times, April 16, 2006
"Effects of the ban seem to be emerging all around, with fallen poll numbers for the governor who signed the law and growing ranks of candidates who want to replace the state's lawmakers. Ordinary people, too, said they had found themselves tangling unpleasantly with their closest friends over a question they had never really discussed much outside their homes. Some said they feared that as the fight over the ballot measure intensified, it would bring only more painful division." Click here to read the report.
Leslee Unruh - a major anti-choice player in South Dakota
CREW Files IRS Complaint Against South Dakota Anti-Choice Organizations
Abstinence-Only Organizations - Alpha Center, National Abstinence Clearing House
News Release, Citizens for Resonsibility and Ethics in Washington via Common Dreams, July 26, 2006
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today filed an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) complaint against the Alpha Center and the National Abstinence Clearinghouse (NAC), two Sioux Falls, S.D. conservative, non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations led by President Leslie Unruh. The complaint asks the IRS to investigate activities by the groups which violate federal tax law and revoke the groups' tax-exempt status.
The complaint alleges that the organizations violated federal law by failing to report their lobbying activities. Federal tax law limits a public charity's lobbying activity such that "no substantial part" of its activities may be for attempting, to influence legislation. Continue
Who Is Leslee Unruh?
by Myra Batchelder, Choice Magazine (Planned Parenthood), May 11, 2006
 Leslee Unruh, a key lobbyist for the sweeping abortion ban passed in South Dakota this year, has in recent months become one of the most visible anti-choice hardliners in the country. As a fervent opponent of reproductive rights and medically accurate sex education, her name has long been familiar to many in the pro-choice community. Continue
Sioux official impeached after suggesting reservation abortion clinic
 Background. Cecelia Fire Thunder, a co-chair of the electoral challenge to South Dakota's law banning almost all abortions, was impeached by her tribe on June 29. The Oglala Sioux Nation removed Fire Thunder because she was organizing a family planning facility on the Pine Ridge Reservation to serve the women of South Dakota in the event that the state's harsh abortion law takes effect.
UPDATE: July 18, 2006
Tribal Head Ousted 2nd Time Over Clinic
Tribal president who proposed abortion clinic ousted again a day after being reinstated
By Carson Walker, Associated Press, CBS News, July 18, 2006
(AP) A tribal president who was ousted and then reinstated after proposing an abortion clinic on the reservation was again stripped of her leadership role Tuesday.
An Oglala Sioux tribal judge had reinstalled Cecelia Fire Thunder to office Monday after she argued that her removal on June 29 violated tribal procedure.
The judge acted after the tribal council removed Fire Thunder from office for proposing a clinic on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that would be beyond the reach of South Dakota's strict new abortion ban. Continue
Fire Thunder: Halting sexual violence should lead political agenda
Kara Briggs, Indian Country Today, June 26, 2006
Cecelia Fire Thunder, the elected though currently suspended chairman of the Oglala Sioux Nation, believes that stopping sexual violence, domestic assault and incest - and caring for its victims - needs to rise to the top of the political agenda on the Pine Ridge reservation.
Fire Thunder got in trouble with her tribal council and some on the reservation this spring when she announced that abortions could be provided on the reservation under federal law even if a proposed state ban was enacted by voters next November.
''I got really angry about a bunch of white guys in the state Legislature making decisions about my body, again,'' the 59-year-old nurse and first female chairman of the Oglala Sioux told Indian Country Today in June. She spoke to ICT in defiance of a tribal council order that she not speak to the media.
When she took her stand for legal abortion this spring, a flurry of outside feminist and Christian Right opinions obscured the story of a group of Oglala women, including Fire Thunder, who are incorporating the Sacred Choices Wellness Center in Kyle. Continue
The Power of Thunder
Cecelia Fire Thunder, president of the South Dakota Ogala Sioux, takes on the state's repressive new abortion ban.
Rose Aguilar, AlterNet, April 4, 2006
Just two weeks after South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds signed the state's extreme abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest, Cecelia Fire Thunder, the first woman president of the Oglala Sioux tribe, made national headlines after saying she would personally set up a clinic on her tribe's land in South Dakota to preserve a woman's right to choose. There is currently only one clinic in the entire state of South Dakota that provides abortions, and its status, since the ban, is endangered. Continue
Tribal Leader Ousted Over Abortion Clinic
By Carson Walker, The Washington Post, June 30, 2006
PORCUPINE, S.D. -- A Sioux tribe ousted its president for proposing an abortion clinic on the reservation, which would be beyond the reach of South Dakota's strict new abortion ban.
By a 9-5 vote late Thursday, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council determined Cecelia Fire Thunder had pursued the clinic for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation without council approval, and she was immediately replaced. Continue
Cecelia Fire Thunder Impeached
Wordpress.com, June 30, 2006
Cecelia Fire Thunder, former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, met the anti-abortion movement and lost. At a hearing on June 29, Tribal Councilman Will Peters, architect of the complaints against her, said at the outset that abortion was the issue.
”We are here today because of the abortion. We will plan for and fight for all Lakota, including the unborn,” Peters said.
Fire Thunder opened the floodgates of criticism when she suggested opening a women’s health clinic on the reservation in response to the state of South Dakota’s near-complete ban on abortion.
Continue
Governor Rounds signs bill making abortion illegal
 Abortion battle gains new intensity with ban in South Dakota
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY, March 6, 2006
"The near-total ban on abortion signed into law Monday in South Dakota sets the stage for renewed battles over abortion rights in courts, legislatures and political campaigns. The new law bans all abortions in the state except to save a woman's life. Under any other circumstances, including rape or incest, performing an abortion would be a crime." Click here for the report.
 Protect choice in your state!
The worst has happened: South Dakota has banned abortion.
NARAL Pro-Choice America is running an online letter-writing campaign to governors of other states, urging them "to hold the line on a woman's right to choose." Click here.
Stand up for South Dakota Women!
Planned Parenthood wants you to join its photo petition in solidarity with the women of South Dakota. Click here.
South Dakota: Pioneers to the Past
by Susan Lenfestey, CommonDreams.org, Friday, March 10, 2006
Lenfestey recalls the bad old days, pre-Roe v. Wade, when the daughters of the rich were able to afford safe, legal, abortions abroad, while middle- and working-class women took their chances in the back alley. "So once again the poorest of the poor will be the ones to suffer the most, while the rich will always have choices. If Jenna Bush came home pregnant after a wild night of clubbing, does anyone think that we'd see a little first-family love child toddling around the White House?" Click here for the report.
A Warning From South Dakota
Editorial, The New York Times, March 12, 2006
"The [South Dakota] law [criminalizing abortion] should be struck down because it imposes an unacceptable burden on women. But it should also serve as a warning that the threat to abortion rights has reached a new level." Click for the editorial.
A Challenge to 'Roe'?
Editorial, The Washington Post, March 3, 2006
"The South Dakota legislature's move to ban nearly all abortions does not pose an immediate threat to reproductive freedoms. Containing an exception to protect the life of the mother but none for cases of rape or incest, the bill is likely to serve, rather, only as short-lived moral preening by the legislature. But if the bill proves legally inconsequential, it is still troubling that a state legislature would pass such a categorical ban -- and that the idea appears to be gaining steam elsewhere." Click here to read the report.
Abortion Ban Exposes Competing Strategies
South Dakota hopes bill will topple Roe, but some pro-lifers lament the timing
by Collin Hansen, Christianity Today, March 8, 2006
A report on the reaction by anti-abortion organizations to Gov. Rounds signing of South Dakota's anti-abortion bill. Supporters are optimists -- hoping that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens will make way for an anti-abortion judge before a challenge to the law reaches the high court. Click here for the editorial.
Majority of Americans Oppose South Dakota Abortion Ban Over Exceptions
By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com, March 7, 2006
The anti-abortion LifeNews website reports that a poll by Opinion Dynamics for the Fox News Channel found "that a majority of Americans are opposed to a new abortion ban in South Dakota because it does not contain exceptions for abortions in the case of rape and incest," although, more expectedly, considering the source, "the poll reveals respondents do not favor the overwhelming majority of abortions." Click here for the article.
Pro-Family Groups Hail South Dakota Abortion Ban
The state now faces legal challenges that will likely end up before the Supreme Court.
Wendy Cloyd, CitizenLink (Focus on the Family), March 6, 2006
"South Dakota Govenor Mike Rounds said lawmakers were right to protect preborn children. '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….' Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said the decision by the South Dakota Legislature sends a strong message to the nation that 'judicial intimidation is over' and that 'most of America wants major changes in the abortion-on-demand regime that has stood only by judicial fiat for 33 years.'"Click here for the article.
South Dakota legislature passes draconian anti-abortion bill
Sizing Up the Opposing Armies in the Coming Abortion Battle
By Monica Davey, The New York Times, February 26, 2006
While the South Dakota law creates a dire situation for pro-choice activists, it has not been universally welcomed by anti-abortion campaigners. Some worry that, when faced with the extreme law, the Supreme Court might uphold Roe vs. Wade. Click here to read the report.
South Dakota's Governor Says He Favors Abortion Ban Bill
By Monica Davey, The New York Times, February 25, 2006
 Mr. Rounds said he believed that a more gradual approach, with measures like parental and spousal notification laws and waiting periods, would probably be more successful at preventing abortions. But he said that he also understood that there were others in the "pro-life camp" who believe that a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal, was the wisest strategy. Click here.
See also:
the text of South Dakota's House Bill 1215, the "Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act" (Click here)
Abortions and Jewish renewal
By Rabbi Arthur Waskow, March 1, 2006
In the days after South Dakota's legislature passed a draconian anti-abortion bill, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of The Shalom Center, writes of the need to keep abortion legal -- and make it rare-- through the personal prism of his grandmother's death from an illegal abortion. He emphasizes the importance of political work to preserve women's right to choose. Click here to read the report.
Could abortion law affect tourism? Both sides say yes
Megan Meyers, Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), February 28, 2006
Bill Honerkamp, president of the Black Hills, Badlands & Lakes Association, is one of several people quoted in this report expressing unease with the prospect of fallout from HB1215. "“Mostly, I think the visitor industry is feeling a little bit like a hostage in the middle of someone else’s argument,” Honerkamp said. “It’s a little difficult for me to understand that this would gain any political leverage.” Click here to read the report.
South Dakota bill that bans abortion, challenges Roe v. Wade heads to governor
By Michael Foust, Baptist Press, February 24, 2006
This article makes no mention that the bill does not make exceptions for rape or incest. It does say, however, that the bill 'has divided the pro-life community, some of whom worry that its defeat at the Supreme Court could further entrench Roe v. Wade as legal precedent, making it tougher to overturn Roe in the future." Click here for the report.
Christian Leader Sees Roe v. Wade Collapsing, But Pro-Lifer Urges Patience
Bill Fancher, Agape Press,
February 28, 2006
"Christian Defense Coalition director Pat Mahoney believes the judicial basis for so-called 'abortion rights' is falling apart as a wave of increasing pro-life sentiment continues to pound away at it. The latest blow came, he notes, when South Dakota's legislature passed a bill banning all abortions. ' What we are witnessing is literally a crack in the foundations of Roe v. Wade,' Mahoney asserts. South Dakota's Governor Mike Rounds has said he will sign the bill into law as soon as it goes through a standard review."Click here for the article.
 Kiona fights ignorance, apathy to preserve women's rights
Anne T. Denogean, Tucson Citizen, February 28, 2006
"Tucsonan Kiona Brown, a 17-year-old armed with passion and an eloquence beyond her years, is one of the newest soldiers in the never-ending war over abortion and reproductive rights." This profile, written the week that South Dakota passed its anti-abortion law, laments that Brown, a peer counselor at her school in addition to her activism, is the exception, not the rule. Click here for the report.
South Dakota House passes ban on abortion, challenging court's Roe v. Wade decision
By Michael Foust, Baptist Press, Feb 10, 2006
South Dakota's House passed and sent to the Senate on February 9th a bill that criminalizes abortion. "The bill would make it a felony for anyone to perform an abortion. The mother would not be charged with a crime. The language of the bill –- named the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act -- says that 'life begins at the time of conception' and that scientific advances since 1973 have proven that the unborn child is indeed life. The bill says the goal is to 'fully protect the rights, interests, and health of the pregnant mother, the rights, interest, and life of her unborn child, and the mother's fundamental natural intrinsic right to a relationship with her child.' The bill is based on the findings of a task force that studied abortion." Click here for the article.
South Dakota Makes Abortion Rare Through Laws And Stigma
Out-of-State Doctors Come Weekly to 1 Clinic
By Evelyn Nieves, The Washington Post, December 27, 2005
"South Dakota, those on both sides of the abortion debate agree, has become one of the hardest states in the country in which to obtain an abortion. One of three states in the country to have only one abortion provider -- North Dakota and Mississippi are the others -- South Dakota, largely because of a strong antiabortion lobby, is also becoming a leading national laboratory for testing the limits of state laws restricting abortion, both opponents and advocates of abortion rights say." Click here to read the report.
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