South Dakota Legislature bans nearly all abortions

Published: 2006-02-24

PIERRE, S.D. (CNS) -- By adopting legislation that would prohibit all intentional abortions except those to save a mother's life, the South Dakota Legislature moved toward a direct challenge of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. If signed into law it would become the most sweeping ban on abortion adopted in any state since 1973. The South Dakota House of Representative passed the bill Feb. 24 by a vote of 50-18. The Senate had approved it Feb. 22, by a vote of 23-12, after slightly amending an earlier version adopted by the House. The House vote Feb. 24 incorporated the Senate's amendment. The amendment, an addition to the introductory legislative findings of the bill, said the Legislature finds that "the guarantee of due process of law under the constitution of South Dakota applies equally to born and unborn human beings" and that the mother and her unborn child "each possess a natural and inalienable right to life." The bill, called the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act, specifically exempts women from any criminal conviction or penalty for obtaining an abortion. But it says that anyone who performs an abortion except to save a mother's life commits a Class 5 felony, which is punishable by a fine up to $5,000 and up to five years in prison.

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