Test for Roe v. Wade?
on Feb 22, 2006 at 6:29 pm
A bill drafted specifically to test the Supreme Court’s current view on abortion rights — and to set up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade — won approval Wednesday in the upper house of the South Dakota legislature. The bill, H.B. 1215, was passed by the state Senate on a 23-12 vote. It differs slightly from a verison passed by the South Dakota House on Feb. 10, but the measure is expected to emerge virtually intact in final legislation.
The version of the bill that emerged on Feb. 17 from the state Senate’s State Affairs Committee can be found here. It is understood that the bill won Senate approval in this form, without further amendment, on Wednesday.
The bill declares that “life begins at conception, a conclusion confirmed by scientific advances since the 1973 decision of Roe v. Wade…” It says that, based on experience since 1973, “abortions in South Dakota should be prohibited.” While it imposes a flat ban on abortion, it declares that no doctor who “performs a medical procedure designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant mother” is guilty of violating the ban. But it does require the doctor to make “reasonable medical efforts” under the circumstances to save the lives of both the mother and “her unborn child” in a manner “consistent with conventional medical practice.”
The bill, if cleared by the two houses of the legislature, would then go to Gov. Mike Rounds, who said this week that he supports a ban on abortion, but had not yet decided whether he would sign the pending bill if it finally passes. Kate Looby, South Dakota director for Planned Parenthood, said “we will be lobbying the governor to veto the bill,” but added that her present expectation was that he would sign it into law.
The initial sponsor of the ban, Rep. Roger Hunt, a Republican and an attorney from Brandon, S.D., has told reporters in the state repeatedly that his aim is to set up a test of Roe’s continuing validity. He noted the appointment of two new Justices, and cited the possibility of “one or two more replacements within a few years,” creating a Court that he would expect to be more willing to reconsider Roe.
Immediately after the Senate acted on Wednesday, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its Minnesota/Dakota affiliate announced that, if the bill is signed into law, a court challenge will begin immediately to stop the law from taking effect. South Dakota director Looby said: “Quite quickly, we will be going to court to ask that the bill be enjoined so that it never takes effect.”
“South Dakota’s ban is the most sweeping abortion ban passed by any state in more than a decade,” according to Planned Parenthood staff attorney Eve Gartner.
Under the bill, South Dakota’s existing abortion laws, including a provision allowing abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy with a doctor’s approval, would be repealed. But the act specifies that, if the new ban is struck down, the existing laws would go back into effect.
