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South Dakota Senate Committee Rejects New Bid to Ban Most Abortions

Safeguards in measure deemed too convoluted and potentially unconstitutional

By Gudrun Schultz

PIERRE, South Dakota, February 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Efforts to introduce a ban on most abortions in South Dakota appear to have failed once again, after a state Senate committee rejected a measure Wednesday that would have prohibited all abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

The measure failed in an 8-1 vote, with supporters admitting it was unlikely to withstand a court challenge.

Sen. Brock Greenfield, chairman of South Dakota Right to Life, testified before the committee against the ban. While he said the bill was a “noble effort”, he also said the measure would fail to hold up in the courts.

 “I do not believe there is any chance it will,” he said, according to a report by The Rapid City Journal.

Sen. Bob Gray, who voted for last year’s total ban on abortions, agreed with Greenfield that the bill had too many faults to survive.

The South Dakota House passed the bill (HB 1293) last week in a 45-25 vote, the Associated Press reported.

S.D. Gov. Mike Rounds signed into law last years’ bill, House Bill 1215, in March, making South Dakota the first state to pass an abortion ban in the United States since Roe vs. Wade brought in abortion on demand in 1973. Pro-abortion campaigns against the measure pressured the state government to place it on the November ballot, where voters rejected it. A media campaign prior to the vote targeted the issue of rape exceptions, triggering public concern over the bill’s lack of exception for rape and incest cases.

While the current bill included compromise amendments permitting abortion in rape or incest cases, safeguards suggested by the measure were deemed too convoluted and potentially unconstitutional to support.

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Bills Restricting Abortion Move Forward in North and South Dakota, Utah and Virginia
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07020102.html

Abortion Ban Signed into Law by South Dakota Governor
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030603.html

South Dakota Abortion Ban Fails Again
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05021509.html

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