Pro-Aborts Expected to Challenge South Dakota's Abortion Ban
by Jody Brown
March 7, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Pro-life advocates in South Dakota and around the country fully expect pro-abortion forces to file lawsuits challenging that state's recently signed law banning abortions, thereby delaying enactment of the law and setting up a potential showdown in the Supreme Court. The sponsor of the legislation, along with the American Life League, is emphasizing the need for prayer as that more-than-likely battle looms. South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds expects his state's ban on abortion to be tied up in court for years to come -- but that didn't stop him Monday from signing into law a bill that directly challenges Roe v. Wade. HB 1215 makes it a crime for doctors in that state to perform an abortion unless it is necessary to save the woman's life -- and it makes no exception in cases of rape or incest. Physicians who violate the ban could face up to five years in prison.
The South Dakota chief executive may have had some other reservations about signing the bill. Rounds tells Associated Press that even with the recent addition of two conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court -- which some interpret to mean increased chances the high court will someday overturn Roe -- he thinks a more effective tactic would be to chip away at abortion a little bit at a time instead of a head-to-head confrontation with the landmark 1973 court decision.
"Personally I think [the Supreme Court] will be more interested in looking at different aspects of Roe v. Wade rather than the direct frontal assault," the governor says, "but we'll never know unless someone tries."
Even without legal challenges to the measure, the abortion ban would not take effect until July. But only too willing to accommodate the governor's prediction about such challenges are pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the leading provider of abortion services in the world, and NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Elizabeth Toledo, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, sees the obvious threat to Roe v. Wade. "This South Dakota bill is an attempt to criminalize abortion in South Dakota and ultimately nationwide," she tells AP. "We intend to use every means that we can to stop the South Dakota law from actually being enacted." And PP's new president, Cecile Richards, reinforces that statement, vowing to "use all legal options available to prevent this law from taking effect."
In an open letter to Planned Parenthood's constituents, Richards acknowledges what she describes as "national implications" to the South Dakota ban on abortion. "I want to personally assure you that Planned Parenthood will continue to do everything in our power to protect our clients' access to the reproductive health care services you need," she states. PP operates the only abortion clinic in the state.
As for NARAL, it sees the law as part of a "larger anti-choice strategy" to overturn Roe. "Our opponents may be fired up over this latest victory," the group says in a press release, "but we can't let them achieve their goal of overturning Roe v. Wade."
The Power of Prayer
The sponsor of the South Dakota legislation has a suggestion on how pro-lifers can endure the lawsuits that are likely forthcoming. "The prayers have to continue," says Republican State Representative Roger Hunt. "The prayers have to be for all of those people who are involved in the judicial system. We need to make sure that all of the pro-life communities are praying for a decision that's going to protect the unborn -- but at the same time we need to pray for patience."
The leader of American Life League, the nation's largest grass-roots, pro-life educational organization, concurs with the call for prayer, adding that it expects any such challenges will eventually make it to the Supreme Court. If that happens, ALL's Judie Brown says "we are praying that the U.S. Supreme Court will use this bill, and its definition of a human being, as a vehicle to declare the personhood of pre-born children in the womb beginning at fertilization."
Brown also admonishes advocates for life to pray "that God will use the efforts of the people in South Dakota and other states to bring a full recognition of the personhood of every human being from its point of creation to its natural death."
And while the ALL spokeswoman welcomes the South Dakota bill, Brown would likely disagree with Governor Rounds' contention that it might be better to just chip away at Roe -- or with anyone who might feel the timing is not right for the bill. "We firmly believe that it is the responsibility of the pro-life movement to always push as hard as possible for full protection of every baby in the womb," she says.
"As much as we humans try to convince ourselves that we can determine the exact time when certain legislation should be passed, the reality is that it is God's time that is important."
Ready and Waiting
Meanwhile, crisis pregnancy centers in South Dakota and elsewhere stand ready to offer women alternatives to abortion. Leslee Unruh says the Alpha Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and 1,400 other crisis pregnancy centers nationwide are ready to provide alternatives to pregnant women once abortion is outlawed.
Unruh says she is excited that Governor Rounds has signed a law banning almost all abortions. "South Dakota is leading -- we're number one -- we're leading the rest of the country," she says. "And something so exciting is that ... there's going to be equal rights for unborn children."
Unruh, who founded the Alpha Center and also serves as president of the Sioux Falls-based Abstinence Clearinghouse, says many crisis pregnancy centers are led by women who regret their past abortions and hope to steer other women toward motherhood or adoption.
According to Family News In Focus, Unruh and her husband -- a chiropractor who is also a pro-life advocate -- have been the target of abortion advocates for their outspoken support for the abortion ban. She reports receiving threatening phone calls and hate mail, and even being mailed coat hangers by some who believe women will die from illegal abortions. In addition, the bodies of dead and decomposing animals have been dumped on the property where her husband's clinic is located.
But FNIF reports Unruh is taking the threats in stride, and plans to use the coat hangers to hang up baby clothes in the Alpha Center.
Associated Press contributed to this article.
