State's abortion bill could mean US legal battle
S.D. gears up for challenges
CHICAGO -- Restrictions on abortion that would be the most severe since the Supreme Court legalized the practice 33 years ago are likely to turn South Dakota into an expensive legal battleground should they become law.
The South Dakota Legislature last week sent a bill to Mike Rounds, the Republican governor, that would ban abortion in virtually all cases, directly challenging what is currently the law of the land.
The measure would ban abortion if a woman was pregnant as a result of rape or incest, or if giving birth would damage the health of the mother. It would allow an abortion to save a woman's life.
The proposed law would punish doctors who perform abortions with a $5,000 fine and five years in prison.
Rounds has indicated that he would sign the proposal into law after scrutinizing it. He vetoed a similar measure two years ago on a technicality, although he said he favored it on merit.
''If the bill is correctly written, then I will seriously consider signing the bill. It would be a direct frontal assault on Roe v. Wade," he said Saturday.
Even before he acts, those who oppose restrictions on abortion are drumming up support and money to challenge the law. An anonymous donor has pledged $1 million to help the state fight the inevitable legal battle over the measure, backers of the provision say.
Abortion opponents also are urging those in their camp to mail in donations of $10 each to Rounds for a legal defense fund.
The proposal is the result of a grass-roots campaign by abortion rights opponents to find a state vehicle by which to challenge the high court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. They believe an increasingly conservative court will be more disposed to dismantling the earlier decision should something like the South Dakota measure ever reach the justices.
South Dakota, which with 770,000 people is the 46th-largest state in terms of population, finds itself the center of the debate partly because of a calendar quirk, those on both sides of the issue say.
The Legislature, controlled by Republicans by wide margins in both houses, meets only in January, February, and early March, unlike many states where the sessions continue all year.
Legislatures in Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Indiana all have measures before them that would heavily restrict abortions. Troy Newman, president of Kansas-based Operation Rescue, which opposes abortions, called the South Dakota lawmakers ''some of the most courageous and brave pioneers in the pro-life movement."
Newman called the vote the beginning of a movement that is ''sweeping across the country" and one that picked up steam after President Bush's appointment of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court added to its perceived conservative tilt.
''The prolife community in South Dakota is very strong," said Jim Sedlak, vice president of the Virginia-based American Life League, who called the state ''fertile ground" for a test case.
Kate Looby, director of Planned Parenthood in South Dakota, said the short legislative session was a factor, but in general ''the South Dakota legislative body is far more conservative than the average citizen of South Dakota, particularly on issues like abortion."
Looby said her group was prepared to challenge the bill if Rounds signed it, although a decision on whether to start in state or federal court had not been reached.
Planned Parenthood operates the sole clinic in South Dakota that provides abortions. About 800 are performed there each year by doctors from neighboring Minnesota, according to Looby.
Two years ago, Rounds vetoed a similar bill, saying it would wipe out existing restrictions on abortion while it was fought in the courts. A rewritten bill lost narrowly in the state Senate at that time. 