South Dakota Mulls Ban On Nearly All Abortions

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A bill to ban abortion was introduced today in the South Dakota state House of Representatives. It would allow exceptions when the pregnancy was as a result of rape or incest, but only if the crimes are reported to authorities and supported by DNA evidence.

People who oppose abortion hope the measure becomes the vehicle for a legal challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade legalized abortion across the United States except for in the last months of pregnancy.

A South Dakota bill passed last year contained an exception only to save the life of a woman. A petition campaign was undertaken and it forced that bill onto the ballot and voters rejected it in November by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent.

Opponents of this new legislation have said the issue was settled by the November vote and that lawmakers should not have revived it.

This year's bill would allow rape victims to get abortions if they report the rapes to police within 50 days. Doctors would have to confirm the report with police and would have to take blood from aborted fetuses and give that information to police for DNA testing.

In the case of incest, a doctor would have to get the woman's consent to report the crime along with the identity of the alleged perpetrator before an abortion could be performed. Blood samples from fetuses would have to be provided to police in incest cases, too.

The bill also carries a maximum penalty for illegal abortions than last year's bill -- 10 years in prison instead of five. It would also allow abortions to save women's lives and when their health would be seriously jeopardized by a continued pregnancy. However, a doctor would require another doctor from another practice to agree that a woman's health is in jeopardy.

One of the 25 sponsors of this bill, Republican state Rep. Gordon Howie, said the rape and incest provisions are so strict in order to ensure that women do not say they have been victims in order to obtain abortions. To me, that is only something that a man could say.