S. Dakota approves bill to restrict abortions
Posted on: Friday, 24 February 2006, 17:50 CST
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.
Source: REUTERS
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