The South Dakota Legislature has approved a near total ban on
abortions in that state, with the exception of the necessity to
save the life of the mother. HB 1215, which includes no exceptions
for rape or incest, was signed into law Monday by Gov. Mike Rounds.
Judging by the reaction, especially the teeth-gnashing
consternation from Republicans, this could be the best thing to
happen to the pro-choice movement since, well, Roe v. Wade. Here
are five reasons why:
The South Dakota Legislature has approved a near total ban on abortions in that state, with the exception of the necessity to save the life of the mother. HB 1215, which includes no exceptions for rape or incest, was signed into law Monday by Gov. Mike Rounds. Judging by the reaction, especially the teeth-gnashing consternation from Republicans, this could be the best thing to happen to the pro-choice movement since, well, Roe v. Wade. Here are five reasons why:
1. Civil war will erupt in the Republican Party
The first shots have already been fired. Jennifer Stockman, national co-chair of the Republican Majority for Choice, wrote Wednesday in the Philadelphia Inquirer that “What the nation witnessed [in South Dakota] was the fulfillment of a promise made by the most extreme religious elements of the GOP to roll back choice by any means necessary – and the assurance of a civil war within the Republican Party.”
She’s not alone. The party’s Libertarian wing, already disaffected over Iraq and huge federal deficits, will side with Stockman. The shakeout that caused many pro-lifers to bolt the Democratic Party years ago will now be visited on the Republicans. These voters won’t return to being Democrats, but they don’t have to. All they have to do to help Democrats is stay home on Election Day. Now many will.
2. The rallying cry will shift from right to left
This is the greatest recruitment tool for liberals in a generation. A significant majority of Americans oppose a total ban on abortions. Countless desperate young women, especially the poor who cannot afford perhaps another child, whose lives and aspirations would be ruined by unwanted pregnancy, will again be the visible face of the issue. Democrats will be the beneficiaries.
3. The protection of choice will shift to the states
At the time of Roe v. Wade in 1973, abortion was illegal in virtually all states. The political landscape has changed so much in 33 years that even if the Supreme Court upholds the South Dakota law – a big if – abortion will likely remain legal in many, mostly blue, states. There will be nowhere in this country where abortion won’t be available to anyone within a reasonable bus ride, even from states where it will be banned.
4. The long-stifled debate over punishment will prove to be a poison pill
As long as the debate was hypothetical, pro-lifers claimed the moral high ground. But as individual states ban abortion, a logical trap door will open underneath them. Take for example the South Dakota law. It criminalizes the doctor, not the woman, and only imposes a Class 5 felony, which is at most 10 years in prison but can also result in probation.
How is that possible? Haven’t pro-lifers been telling us for years that abortion is murder? And not just murder – premeditated murder. If one believes it to be a crime, how can it be morally justified as a mere Class 5 felony, and not a Class 1 – with the death penalty on the table? And how is it that the woman, the person who initiates the procedure, plans it, pays for it, and reaps the benefits is not a party to the alleged crime?
Anti-abortionists don’t want to talk about this, and why should they? They look like hypocrites, because it reveals that they don’t really believe that fetuses are people. Is there anything more ironic than being forced to debate the death penalty in the context of the debate over life? Above all, they don’t want to talk about penalties of any kind for their daughters – but that’s what they’ve unwittingly been supporting for decades.
5. Pharmaceuticals are making surgical abortion moot
The Republican right’s control of the Food and Drug Administration cannot hold back much longer the tide of technological progress that has made available pharmaceutically induced abortions or morning-after therapy. The goal of “every child a wanted child” is close, at least wherever women are educated about their choices.
Like a boa constrictor slowly strangling its prey, the opponents of choice have gotten away for decades with a stealth strategy of gradually restricting access to abortion. The action of the South Dakota Legislature at last exposes that strategy’s ultimate goal: the complete elimination of abortion rights. Ironically, the Republican coalition that has long used that strategy as an organizing tool now finds itself more at risk than those rights.
