Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Abortion battle lines drawn - that didn't take long

It's very possible that a very large pile of dung entered the rotors of a very slow-moving fan yesterday, when the governor of South Dakota signed a law essentially banning abortion in the state. It would criminalize the practice except when necessary to save the mother's life. Abortions will not be allowed for victims of rape or incest. But the law (scheduled to take effect July 1) probably won't see the light of day for several years, if ever. This will be tied up in legal knots for a long time, and will most likely culminate at the U.S. Supreme Court, or, as I like to call it, the Big Tomato.














I sense a disturbance brewing in the West, young friend. A BIG disturbance.

Inasmuch as it's a direct challenge to Roe vs. Wade, lots of people and groups are already lining up to
battle the ruling, suddenly making South Dakota the epicenter of a massive ideological war. Interestingly enough, only scant months ago the Big Tomato gained two abortion opponents, justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, who is particularly unabashed in his opposition. What timing! It's almost like they planned this whole thing. Amazing!

Republicans really make no effort to be tactful, do they? You've got to hand it to them - they go right for the jugular. I'm sure the Democrats won't be long in convening some kind of caucus on this, only to eventually disagree on everything except for the fact that they need to hold more caucuses, because they really don't get together often enough. And hey, it doesn't have to be a caucus about abortion or global warming or the war or anything "specific." They could just kick it. Take your time, guys and gals.

I wonder how much administration influence was contained in this - S.D. is the nation's fifth least densely populated state, so a law here causes less of a firestorm than a similar law in, say, Texas. I don't think it's far-fetched to say this law is just the calculated next step in a larger plan to get abortion re-heard in front of the Big Tomato.

Either way, it will be extremely interesting to see how this all pans out. May the best side win.


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3 comments:

Rebecca said...

I can't stand to be told what to do.

D B R said...

I think current administration has adequately shown its love of influence over the People. My favorite example of this is the 2004 elections. The Repubs busted ass to get a Focus on the Family issue on the table, fueling a massive Puritanical knee jerk that walked otherwise complacent Fundamentalists to the voting booths. This year, to assure these same people will come out, we have Focus on the Family II; gays want to adopt!! Think of the children. As if it weren't a family issue in 2004. Gays everywhere said "shit we can't marry? We'd better rush out and adopt!"

Personally I don't breed, but that doesn't mean killing Roe v. Wade won't affect me. But how can you convince a majority of Americans they haven't fully considered what LIFE is? How much scientific evidence is needed to understand a fetus can't be considered fully human until 3rd trimester? And that abortions of these fetuses are already WIDELY understood to be off limits??

I say, let them illegalize abortion. Let them have babies conceived of rape and incest. Let them have babies cuz their bored, or they like the government check. I think allowing a Puritan mentality to run our nation is already proving to be unsuccesful. If we let it succeed in realm of ethics, will it show its ass equally? I don't know.

MSH said...

Hmmm...banning abortion for spite. I like where your head is at, Diesel.