Thursday, February 17, 2011

South Dakota bill calls eliminating abortion doctors sensible homicide

Women seeking abortions in South Dakota might have to face already tough laws made even tougher. South Dakota ran abortion clinics out of the state in 1994, and even Planned Parenthood is only allowed to fly an agent in for special scenarios. Now the South Dakota legislature is thinking about the even tougher Republican-backed House Bill 1171. "Justifiable homicide" would be expanded in scope to condone the killing of those who would harm a fetus, for instance abortion doctors. Individuals take out huge pay day loans to see abortion doctors.

Sensible death to South Dakota abortion doctors

With a 9 to 3 party line vote, House Bill 1171 made it out of committee. It’s sponsored by long time anti-abortion activist and South Dakota state Rep. Phil Jensen. His stated intention with the bill is to bring "consistency" to South Dakota’s criminal code, which allows prosecutors to charge individuals with manslaughter or murder in crimes that trigger the death of unborn fetuses.

However, such crimes involve the murder of pregnant women, too, which is rather different than what House Bill 1171 proposes. What Jensen is hoping for is that women who want an abortion can only get one with the illegal help of someone else getting illegally involved while changing the meaning of justifiable murder.

‘This isn’t an abstract bill’

Rep. Jensen's House Bill 1171 is "an invitation to murder abortion providers," according to National Abortion Federation's Vicki Saporta who spoke with Mother Jones. Extremists can get away with murder. That is what the bill does. Giving a fetus personhood is what the bill is about in accordance with Kristin Aschenbrenner of the South Dakota Advocacy Network for Women.

House Bill 1171 might not be abstract, but it may be legally dubious, says law Prof. Sara Rosenbaum of George Washington University.

"It takes my breath away," Rosenbaum said via e-mail. "Constitutionally, a state cannot make it a crime to perform a constitutionally lawful act."

Entrance guidance needed with House Bill 1217

The CPC, or Crisis Pregnancy Center would give anti-abortion counseling to women considering abortion with House Bill 1217. This is to go along with House Bill 1171. Such CPCs were the subject of a 2006 congressional investigation that found the information disseminated was often false or misleading.

Citations

Mother Jones

motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/south-dakota-hb-1171-legalize-killing-abortion-providers?page=2

South Dakota House Bill

legis.state.sd.us/sessions/2011/Bill.aspx?File=HB1171HJU.htm

An interesting question posed to anti-abortion demonstrators

youtube.com/watch?v=iD97OVJ4PNw



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