{"id":6790,"date":"2006-03-07T11:10:23","date_gmt":"2006-03-07T16:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6790"},"modified":"2006-03-07T11:10:23","modified_gmt":"2006-03-07T16:10:23","slug":"sd-abortion-ban-might-be-the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-which-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/sd-abortion-ban-might-be-the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-which-side\/","title":{"rendered":"S.D. abortion ban ‘might be the best thing that ever happened’ — to which side?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As readers have probably heard by now, South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds (R) signed legislation Monday banning nearly all abortions<\/a> in the state, as part of a conservative drive to directly challenge Roe v Wade now that the composition of the Supreme Court has changed. For opponents of abortion rights in the South Dakota legislature, the timing is just right.<\/p>\n

Their ideological allies outside the building aren’t so sure. As you’d expect, supporters of existing law were generally outraged by the bill signing yesterday, but there were some unexpected reactions. Consider what some opponents of abortion rights were saying yesterday<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“I am very purely pro-life, and I would not have undertaken this strategy,” Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway says. She says it plays into “somewhat hysterical claims of extremism” by the left and “seems to give a largely dying, discredited (abortion rights) movement a little bit of gas.” […]<\/p>\n

South Dakota state Sen. J.P. Duniphan, who describes herself as a “pro-life” Republican, opposed the law. “It is a very unnecessary, expensive challenge,” she says. “And it is dividing the party.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A few pro-choice advocates, meanwhile, sounded almost pleased<\/em> by the developments. Democratic Party strategist Steve Hildebrand said the South Dakota ban may be “a huge benefit<\/a>” for the left once the law is blocked and it works its way through the courts.<\/p>\n

[Hildebrand] gives a preview of the case abortion rights supporters could make: If a murderer gets out of prison and rapes a woman, she’s forced to have his child. If a father brutally rapes his daughter, she is forced to have his child. “You present those arguments to women voters, they are going to be outraged,” he says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, reading over the reactions<\/a>, there seems to be something of a consensus: the South Dakota initiative is a huge gamble for opponents of abortion rights, which they very well may lose. Politically, the pro-choice community will use it as a rallying cry, and legally, there are still five votes on the Supreme Court that support Roe’s precedent.<\/p>\n

Susan Hill, president of the National Women’s Health Organization, which runs abortion clinics in five states, said South Dakota’s ban might, if abortion-rights advocates take advantage of the opportunity, “be the best thing that ever happened<\/a> to the pro-choice movement.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As readers have probably heard by now, South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds (R) signed legislation Monday banning nearly all abortions in the state, as part of a conservative drive to directly challenge Roe v Wade now that the composition of the Supreme Court has changed. For opponents of abortion rights in the South Dakota legislature, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}