Just as we'd feared, MSBNC reports that today that the South Dakota House passed legislation that would outlaw abortion, without exception for rape or incest. Under the bill (which had already been passed by the Senate), abortion would be legal in South Dakota only to save the life of the pregnant woman, and the crime of performing an illegal abortion could carry a sentence of up to five years.
Now the abortion ban goes to the desk of Gov. Mike Rounds, who has indicated that he will likely sign the bill into law. If he does, the new rule will go into effect July 1. The master plan, of course, is not to just outlaw the 800 or so abortions performed annually in South Dakota, but to challenge Roe v. Wade before the new, more conservative Supreme Court.
Planned Parenthood, which operates the state's only abortion clinic in Sioux Falls, has already pledged to sue to overturn the law, calling it the most sweeping abortion ban any state has passed in more than a decade. And an anonymous, private donor has promised $1 million to help the state legally defend the law as it wends its way toward the Supreme Court.
The abortion doctor
Susan Wicklund has received death threats and worn a bulletproof vest to work. But what really scares her, she writes in "This Common Secret," is the war on reproductive rights.
By Eryn Loeb, Salon
How abortion changed the world
From a sketchy underground doctor to the American fight against communism, a look at the unlikely forces that helped spread global family planning.
By Michelle Goldberg, Salon
What's wrong with the new pro-lifers
The progressive anti-abortion movement still doesn't truly value the life and identity of the mother.
By Frances Kissling, Salon
Is there a next generation of abortion providers?
As if the threat of violence and divisive politics weren't enough, getting trained is almost impossible.
By Kate Harding, Salon
When abortion was a crime
Reagan, an assistant professor of history, medicine and women's studies at the University of Illinois, dedicates her disturbing work on abortion in America before Roe v. Wade to "the lives of... women who died trying to control their reproduction."
The abortion debate
An incredibly interesting debate that looks at both the pros and cons of abortion from a secularist viewpoint.
“Egg-as-a-Person” Initiative on the 2010 Ballot in Colorado
My Saturday at the abortion clinic
Secular Sunday School: Blasphemy Laws
Weed: Shall Ye Be California's Savior? 