Welcome To South Dakota: Bring Your Own Coathanger!

Well, it’s official. The South Dakota legislature has passed an appalling (and unconstitutional) bill banning virtually all abortions in the state. (As some of you may remember, this legislation was the product of a shoddy, misogynist, and sectarian task force panel, which provided an all too grim window on the American “right to life” movement.) The legislation is extremely similar to the Texas statute struck down in Roe v. Wade, banning all abortions except where the life of the mother is at stake (but with no exemption even for rape or incest.) The legislation shares something else in common with the archaic Texas statute as well: as Jill points out, it contains criminal sanctions for doctors who perform abortions, but not women who seek them. Which is, of course, flatly irreconcilable with the legislature’s assertion that “life begins at conception” unless you think that women are not responsible moral agents. It’s not surprising that the Texas statute made this distinction–after all, it was enacted at a time when women couldn’t vote or own property. That the South Dakota legislature wishes to write late-19th century gender politics into its own statute books–and the way the law is written, as well as the process leading up to its writing, make it clear what’s going on–is genuinely reprehensible.

Evidently, this legislation is unenforceable, but is intended to be used as a test case to gut or overturn Roe, which is hanging by a 5-4 thread with a cancer survivor who will turn 86 in April one of the 5. Two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl…

…more from Digby.

…Liza puts the argument in starker form.