SALON

Sunday, Mar 17, 2013 5:44 PM UTC

“Fiscally conservative” lawmaker happy to spend taxpayer millions defending unconstitutional abortion ban

State Rep. Bette Grande thinks taxpayers should foot the bill on legal fees over an unconstitutional abortion ban

By

Topics: Abortion, Roe v. Wade, North Dakota, ,

(Credit: AP)
This story has been corrected since it was originally published.

Fast on the heels of Arkansas’ 12-week abortion ban, the North Dakota state legislature has sent a measure criminalizing abortion at six weeks to Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple for approval. If signed into law, it would become the latest most extreme anti-abortion measure in the country.

Dalrymple may break with his fellow Republicans to veto the unconstitutional measure, but the bill has enough support to pass without him. The Republican-controlled legislature has said the goal of the ban is to challenge Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that defines fetal viability between 22 to 24 weeks.

Although it was overridden, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe explained his veto on the state’s 12-week abortion ban citing how it would prove “very costly to the taxpayers” given that “lawsuits challenging unconstitutional laws also result in the losing party — in this case, the state — being ordered to pay the costs and attorneys’ fees incurred by the litigants who successfully challenge the law. Those costs and fees can be significant.”

But conservative lawmakers in oil-rich North Dakota remain undeterred. Republican Rep. Bette Grande, a “fiscal conservative” who introduced the measure, told the Associated Press that she “didn’t look at [the measure] from the financial side of things” but from the “life side of things.” Grande went on to tell lawmakers that “fears about a legal challenge” shouldn’t prevent them from pushing forward with similar unconstitutional bans on abortion.

Grande is a signatory of the “Contract from America” (not to be confused with Grover Norquist’s “Contract with America”), a Tea Party document that, among other pledges, calls on lawmakers to identify “waste and ineffectiveness” in government and to end “runaway government spending.”

Except, that is, when it comes to abortion. Then Grande is willing to bet the (tax payer-funded) house.

But Democratic State Sen. Mac Schneider, an attorney from Grand Forks, is urging his colleagues in the state legislature to not waste tax payer dollars on “expensive and potentially protracted abortion litigation.” Schneider told ABC News that “there hasn’t been near enough attention given to the costs as we’ve debated these issues,” warning that legislators ”need to be honest with taxpayer funds and that is: We will be spending money on attorneys.”

The ban would charge doctors who knowingly perform abortions after six weeks with a felony that carries a five-year prison sentence. The measure makes exceptions for abortion to “save the life of the mother” but not for cases of rape or incest.

Sen. Dwight Cook, a Republican from Mandan who chairs the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee, speculated on Saturday that the governor was likely to sign the unconstitutional ban, telling the Associated Press: “He’s as pro-life as I am, and to what degree he looks at cost, I don’t know. If I had to bet, I’d bet he signs them.”

 

Katie McDonough is an assistant editor for Salon, focusing on lifestyle. Follow her on Twitter @kmcdonovgh or email her at kmcdonough@salon.com. More Katie Mcdonough.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 11 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
146 points147 points | comment
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
125 points126 points | 12 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
124 points125 points | 90 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
111 points112 points | 32 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
74 points75 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations