PIERRE, S.D., Feb. 22 — Setting up South Dakota to become the first state in 14 years to start a direct legal attack on Roe v. Wade, lawmakers voted on Wednesday to outlaw nearly all abortions.Clearly, they're testing the waters - seeing if this Alito fellow is the anti-abortion ideologue they were all assured he would be. Even if he votes against Roe V. Wade, that will still work out to 5-4 upholding it.
...
After more than an hour of fierce and emotional debate, the senators rejected pleas to add exceptions for incest or rape or for the health of the pregnant woman and instead voted, 23 to 12, to outlaw all abortions, except those to save the woman's life.
They also rejected an effort to allow South Dakotans to decide the question in a referendum and an effort to prevent state tax dollars from financing what is certain to be a long and expensive court battle.
I think, though, that any attempt to outlaw abortion all over again would be the political blunder of the new century. If they tried a stunt like that, heck, the Democrats might actually start winning.
Some years ago studies were done comparing birth rates before and after abortion was legalized. What they found was that birth rates did decline slightly, but not nearly as much as the number of abortions would indicate. The moral: women have abortions, whether it's legal or not. The only question is whether those abortions are safely administered.
My question to (most) pro-lifers is this: why don't you support all the programs that actually reduce abortion? Safe-sex education, universal health care, easily obtainable contraception.. are these worse than abortion, in your opnion? let me know.
