Challenging Roe
by matt at 6:00 am on February 27th, 2006 in Religious Right / Extremists“We are once again at the place where the hard rock of religious beliefs shatters the fragile glass of tolerance.” - South Dakota State Sen. Dave Knudson (R-Sioux Falls)
“I guess I’ve never claimed to be speaking for God. I know I’m a sinner and I just do my feeble best as a human being to create reasonable, rational laws that respect everyone’s freedom.”
[…]
“The idea that this bill encompasses is a nearly complete ban on any form of abortion, short of someone in the throes of death, is not supported anywhere that I’ve found inside South Dakota or in the country.” - South Dakota State Rep. Joni Cutler (R-Sioux Falls)
Knudson and Cutler were of course commenting on the passage, and likely gubernatorial signing, of a bill by the South Dakota legislature that would ban abortion in that state. No rape exception. No incest exception. No health-of-the-mother exception. The only case in which a doctor could terminate a pregnancy and avoid facing five years in prison is if he believed that the mother would die without the procedure, which is not much of an exception when you never know who might be reviewing the files after the fact.
It’s kind of beside the point that the South Dakota legislature and Governor Mike Rounds are breaking the law by banning abortion, a procedure protected by 33 years of Supreme Court precedent. This law will likely never go into effect, and upholding it would force new Supreme Court justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito to reveal themselves as liars for their statements defending the legal principle of stare decisis, the deference given to long-standing court precedent. Combined with the “partial-birth abortion” bill that the high court will review next year, abortion is back on the front lines of political combat.
The war on abortion has always been good for the Republican party and the pseudo-religious leaders of the anti-choice movement. Elections have been won, names have been made, and a fortune has been raised and spent with the goal of criminalizing abortion and convincing Americans that it makes sense to do so. While the right has much to show for the demonization of those who support choice, they don’t have the law on their side. Sure it’s nearly impossible to get an abortion in some places, (South Dakota currently has one clinic that performs abortions, serving almost 800,000 citizens, and more importantly, nearly 80,000 square miles) but it’s still legal. They have even less to show for their 30-plus-year-war on public opinion.
Even in the deep red state of South Dakota where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 12 points, opinion on abortion is split evenly, and when South Dakotans are asked about the new abortion ban, they oppose it 61-37. South Dakota is far from the only state ignoring the will of its people, but since their legislature only meets January-March each year, their folly is magnified. The abortion ban is just one of many measures under consideration that are designed to limit the right to choose and access to birth control/family planning.
These measures didn’t become law, but they do provide a clear view to the tide of legislation. As much as I disagree with making the uterus state property, I grant that abortion is a tough issue. The same can not be said about seeking to limit access to contraception and well-rounded sexual education in a state that is in the process of banning abortions. Increased contraception and education is the only way to reduce abortions; banning abortion only increases unsafe, unlicensed abortions.
South Dakota Republicans Knudson and Cutler see the big picture. Religion is being used as a justification for forcing the beliefs of some onto all South Dakotans. And once again, we find ourselves pondering the state of tolerance, a topic I have covered before:
It’s the dynamic of evangelism within and without the government that is subverting the will of the public. There aren’t any evangelical homosexuals, evangelical abortion supporters, evangelical Darwinists, or evangelical stem cell researchers. Through the intensity and volume of their arguments, evangelical Christians wield influence disproportionate to their numbers. They do not tolerate lifestyles or viewpoints other than their own (at best you’ll hear “hate the sin not the sinner”), yet demand not only tolerance but official approval for the way they choose to live their lives.
At my Catholic high school, we were taught that God would judge us based on how we lived according to our chosen faith. Not being Catholic, this was comforting. But despite Catholicism’s numerical advantage among the US population, evangelicals of all denominations are asserting their dominance through legislation codifying their beliefs. It’s not enough for them to live their lives as they see fit; everyone else must also live as evangelicals see fit, and they’ll push until the law agrees.
A common comeback we’ve seen from dissenters in our comments section over the years goes something like this latest example from a post about Big Time’s target practice:
How has this affected you personnaly [sic]? Where you injured? Could you possibly be injured?
Well, if the actions of the Vice President are none of my business, then how are the health decisions of an unknown woman in South Dakota or anywhere else anyone’s business? Again it comes down to religion and it’s role in the legislation process. The founders came here to escape repressive religion, but that’s unimportant to people who just want everyone to live by their rules.
sarabeth wrote:
I’m firmly convinced that the South Dakota law will be struck down.
This probably qualifies as contempt of court, but I’m cynically convinced that there’s a deal in place that neither Roberts nor Alito will embarrass Bush by voting to overturn Roe while Bush is still in office. (Chipping away is presumably okay, but not overturning.)
Posted 27 Feb 2006 at 6:55 am ¶
matt wrote:
now if only bush could have the same deal with himself
Posted 27 Feb 2006 at 7:38 am ¶
darren wrote:
Love your site.
Read it everyday.
One tiny complaint. Before the redesign, the site would print just like it looks in the browser (ie). Now when you print it, it prints (for me at least) all the links and recent comments first, then the main content. Not a big complaint. Just like the old way (I print out your site as well as many of your links each day before lunch).
Thanks,
DH
Posted 27 Feb 2006 at 8:19 am ¶
sarabeth wrote:
I think he does, actually. He just can’t keep up his end of it.
Posted 27 Feb 2006 at 8:28 am ¶
Fernando wrote:
Oh, there’s no way that the SD law won’t get shot down. We all know that the Bush adminstration doesn’t appoint activist judges.
Posted 27 Feb 2006 at 6:11 pm ¶
Gatrios wrote:
All I can say is….Wow. It’s like you read my mind. I have goosebumps, on my goosebumps. I am such a huge fan of yours, but even if I wasn’t a fan I must say that I couldn’t agree with you more on every single point you made. But like i said before, I am a fan. I think if you met me, you’d probably really like me. But the ball is in your court. ; )
And until we rescue our governMESS from Bu$$$$Hitler, then our country is FuKKKed and we’ll never be together. We need to stop BU$HCO EVIL TWIN Dick ChenIKILLPEOPLEey and the Holy Bibull$$$hit-humping corpoRAPE greed-mongering constituSHUNNED-shredding racists who went after Clinton for a BJ (blow job) but don’t care about global HARMing - from wiping their A$$e$ with the con$TITuSHUN. These warloving taxcutting forest-raping neoconvict enron (ENDRUN!)-supporting clean-water-act abusing naSHUNnal debt assholes who pursue (UN)intelligent deSSign in red state$$$ with their higher divorce$ are de$$$stroying our Country and i couldn’t agree with you more again! See my website (WWW.Again$$$tBu$$$Hitler.org.com.org.com) and sign my petition (www.petitionagainstcorporaterapegreedandotherbadpeople.com.org.com) or meet me at the library between bound periodicals and microforms on Thursdays between 11 and 12 where’ I’ll be discuSSing how to give Rushannityoreilly and the fellow Coulterrorist what they de$$$$$ERVE and KKKeep their hands off Amerikkka. They are the ones responSSible for HURRIKKKKANE KKKATRINA, the violence in the MUDDLE east, sup”port” of MISRAEL, wireTRAPPing as a means for war on terror (I CALL IT a WAR IN ERROR!) and the war against evolution (they think its EVIL-UTION) by southern redneXXX driving trucks to church to PREY to GAWD that doesn’t give a shit about WMD (weapons of mass dumbness!!) because they DONT EXIST and ARE busy burning churches when they should be taxing them, which meanwhile they also worship the NRA , and it stands for National Redneck Assholes who would rather hunt and kill gays to prevent them from teaching evolution (to them it’s EVILER-UTION!) to their inbred childENron who will grow up to wireTRAP and eat wildhorses while stealing elections in Floriduh. Amen - it’s not WE THE PEOPLE, BUT WEE ON THE PEOPLE - fratboy Jeb and that SOB (son of barbra) arent a family but a cabal of criminalzheimers who see diSSent as unpatRIOTic and that Port deals mean more wine for the REICH WING. MEANWHILE., i worry about my chidlren and their children who are my grandfchildren except i am being hyperthetical because i dont have anyh kids (i have carpool tunnel syndrome) which i am grateful for becauser i dont want them to be in a planet under attack by evil corporate polluters - but my freedumb of choice is made illegal because NEOCONDALSLEAZYRICE wantsme to have abortions iwith a coat hanger made by people making minimum wage so I will probably have kids, but i will raise them awayh from Dubya-loving or shall i say DUBAI loving NAZZZI-neoconservaturds who have hijackedOFF our countreason and turned into AmeriKKKA with its evile policie$$$$.Prolife spelled backwards in EFILORP (Evil Fanatic ignorant liars on Rape Pills). I would leave the U$A but i am on di$$ability. I also call it the USSA, referring Hitler’s own personal bodyguard called the Schutzstaffel (SEE EARLIER POST!!!). . We need to WAKE UP THE United SLAVES of AmeriKKKa AND TAKE IT BACK from Jack AbRAMITUPYOURASS! HOMOland SUCKurity is nothing but a covert KKKlub run by KKKultish FAUX POOS at the hands of KKKARL RAVENOUS as a means to blind our eyes from IRAQOFLAMB- THE fault oF WHORE W Bu$$$H and Donald RAPESCHILDRENfeld. If we don’t stop the Repuglifeces NOW, then NEOCONVICTS LIKE Prick Insanetorum and his cronie$$$$ from Halli-BurtonCummings will gain NEO-CON-TROLL and then we will be driving automobiles instead of Prius’s.
Posted 27 Feb 2006 at 8:51 pm ¶
Fernando wrote:
Gatrios:
1) Stop spamming.
2) Stop huffing paint.
Posted 27 Feb 2006 at 9:31 pm ¶
Jason wrote:
That’s kind of the comment version of Peter Griffin’s Breakfast Machine, isn’t it?
Posted 28 Feb 2006 at 10:50 am ¶