Back to the Dark Ages

South Dakota Abortion Law Signed.

I ranted about this bit of legislative stupidity back here. At that time, I didn't happen to have a copy of the text of the legislation at hand - it's here, and omigod is it ever nasty.

Just a few excerpts for your enjoyment:

Section 2. That chapter 22-17 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:

No person may knowingly administer to, prescribe for, or procure for, or sell to any pregnant woman any medicine, drug, or other substance with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of an unborn human being. No person may knowingly use or employ any instrument or procedure upon a pregnant woman with the specific intent of causing or abetting the termination of the life of an unborn human being.

Any violation of this section is a Class 5 felony.

Oh my - put in simple terms, not only is an abortion illegal now in S. Dakota, apparently anything close to it is. This could have some significat impact on women's health issues - for example Plan B which prevents the zygote from implanting in the womb could be considered "illegal", and RU-486 certainly would be. (Not to mention a whole raft of herbal concoctions that are known to induce miscarriages).

Some might even go as far as arguing that The Pill falls under this broadly worded definition.

"Unborn human being," an individual living member of the species, homo sapiens, throughout the entire embryonic and fetal ages of the unborn child from fertilization to full gestation and childbirth;

Notice the subtle, slippery attempt at defining the fetus as an "unborn human", and the broad sweeping attempt to capture the notion "that life begins at conception".

Section 12. This Act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act. An Act to establish certain legislative findings, to reinstate the prohibition against certain acts causing the termination of an unborn human life, to prescribe a penalty therefor, and to provide for the implementation of such provisions under certain circumstances.

Notice the name here "Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act". Yet, what does it do? It takes away from women the very right to control their own destiny. It presupposes that a woman cannot make an intelligent, moral and ethical decision about her fertility, or the well-being of her baby. It's not about women's health - it's about controlling women as if they were non-sentient machines whose sole purpose is to propogate the human race. (ref. Frank Herbert's Tleilaxu and their Axlotl Tanks - which were essentially females with no upper brain function kept alive to 'grow' their various creations - the image is hideous, but perhaps most appropriate) {Have the Bene Tleilax taken up residence in S. Dakota's legislature?}

I shudder to think just what is in store for the women of S. Dakota, and elsewhere in the United States if this law should stand.