S. Dakota approves bill to restrict abortions

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The South Dakota Legislature on Friday
approved a bill that would ban almost all abortions in a move
that could set up a challenge to the national abortion standard
set by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade ruling.

The legislation, which calls for $5,000 fines and five-year
prison sentences for doctors who carry out abortions, now goes
to Republican Gov. Mike Rounds, who has said he is inclined to
sign it.

Backers and opponents of the bill have said it is the most
restrictive measure on abortion to pass a state legislature
since the Supreme Court legalized abortion with the Roe vs.
Wade decision in 1973.

Supporters hope the conflict it sets up with Roe vs. Wade
will provide a vehicle to bring the issue before the Supreme
Court, whose newly appointed conservative members, they hope,
will be more disposed dismantle the 1973 decision.

The proposed law concludes that life begins at conception
based on medical advances in the past three decades. It would
ban abortions in almost all cases, including pregnancies that
endanger the mother or that resulted from incest or rape. It
makes an exception in cases that involve saving the mother’s
life.

Both the state House and Senate previously passed the bill
but it did not take final form until the House agreed to a
minor language change.

Rounds indicated he would sign the measure if the fine
print stood up to scrutiny, as the bill’s sponsors have told
him it would. He vetoed a similar measure two years ago not
because of its intent but because of a technicality.

The South Dakota law is part of a grass-roots,
state-by-state effort to challenge abortion. Legislatures in
Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana also have
measures before them that would heavily restrict abortions.

It could take years for a challenge based on the South
Dakota law or some other one to reach the high court.