“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.”
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“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.

Support for legal abortion is generally the same as it was 25 years ago

In a poll conducted after Alito’s nomination, nearly 70% said that the would oppose his confirmation if it meant rolling back Roe

Pro-choice views now outpace pro-life views on average about 60% to 40%

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.

A bill banning access to contraception in schools was narrowly defeated only after it was discovered that no South Dakota schools distributed contraception.

Another bill designed to prevent teachers from accompanying students to family planning counseling was similarly scuttled due to the inability to find any cases where this actually happened.

A bill recommending abstinence-only education was tabled pending local input.

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.