The Scene of the Crime

South Dakota's House and Senate voted overwhelmingly last month to threaten the lives, independence and civil rights of every woman in the state with the most oppressive anti-abortion legislation in the country. This week's NYT Magazine provides a nice little glimpse into the world anti-abortionists envision, one in which women are hand cuffed to hospital beds when their doctors suspect they've had the procedure, a vagina is refered to as "The scene of the crime" (no joke) and where an abortion conviction carries a sentence of 30 years. No exceptions. In other words, you would serve more time than the guy who raped you for not wanting to carry his child to term.

People of good conscience can disagree on many of the particulars of abortion; no one believes in a completely unrestricted abortion policy. Sex selection is illegal, and even the most ardent abortion defenders want safe, responsible regulation of clinics and doctors.

But, most people also believe that personal policies make bad public policy, especially bad public health policy. And by "most people," I now include South Dakotans. Why?

Because in just 2 weeks they have collected 1/3 of the signatures needed to put a referendum on the November ballot. This means that, a. anti-abortion Americans STILL do not believe the government has the right to make decisions for women and their doctors, and b. that the activist community was confident enough in this fact to deal with the ban politically rather than judicially. It is true that the law is an obvious affront to Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood v. Casey and the common interpretation of Federal and state law. But sueing the state would add fuel the right wing bonfire where cries of "judicial activism" ring far and wide. LINK