South Dakota Abortion Ban Will Harm, Not Help, Pro-Life Cause

On March 6, South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds signed a bill that would effectively ban almost all abortion in the state of South Dakota. If the law is upheld, performing an abortion would be a crime punishible by jail time, and no exceptions are made for cases of rape, incest or the health of the mother.

The bill is itself more symbolic than practical. There is only a single abortion clinic in the entire state of South Dakota, and even anti-abortion activists admit most women go out-of-state to get abortions performed. Combined with an analysis of the language used in the bill, which directly and brazenly contradicts Roe v. Wade, it’s evident that the conservative forces behind the legislation are activists, trying to get the issue before the new, more conservative Supreme Court. Talk about irony.

Of course, the legislation is being appealed, and as it makes the rounds through the appeals courts, on the way to the Supreme Court, it takes only a single “this law is unconstitutional” ruling, and one upholding of that ruling, to make the whole issue go away. Even among ardent anti-abortion crusaders, exceptions for rape and incest are generally given, so it seems unlikely that the case will ever make it up the ladder far enough to be heard by the Supreme Court. By being so draconian, and going so plainly against the mainstream public - not to mention judicial - opinion on the subject, it seems like the bill is almost doomed to failure.

Even if the appeals process made it to Washington, Roe v. Wade isn’t going anywhere. Five words: Souter, Ginsberg, Stevens, Breyer, Kennedy. While the ideological foundation of the Supreme Court may have shifted, it hasn’t become a bench of demagogues. Almost every legal analyst agrees that these five justices would stick to the Roe v. Wade guns.

And that’s a good thing. Roe v. Wade does more than establish abortion rights at the federal level. It affirms an American right to privacy that we all take for granted. And it is that American right - implicit in the Constitution, but explicit in the consequent legal opinion - that safeguards the freedoms and liberties that all Americans enjoy.

By backing this bill, anti-abortion activists in South Dakota have chosen to ignore the opinions and beliefs of even moderate pro-lifers and, in so doing, most of the American public. Their bill will ultimately be declared unconstitutional, and subsequent, possibly less idiotic, challenges to current abortion law will be all the more difficult to have heard as a result. But by championing the overturning of Roe v. Wade, far-right extremists also by necessity rally against the right to privacy. That kind of invitation to true bigger government, in the worst possible sense, should be rejected by everyone who calls themselves American.