News

PIERRE, South Dakota, February 16, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A South Dakota bill that has raised national controversy for introducing the possibility of “justifiable homicide” in defense of an unborn child is undergoing review to make an exemption for abortionists.

Members of the pro-abortion community were in a rage when news broke that a bill introduced by South Dakota State Rep. Phil Jensen would protect those who kill an aggressor “in the lawful defense of … his or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or the unborn child of any such enumerated person” from prosecution by making such actions “justifiable homicide.” The bill is scheduled for debate Tuesday.

Pro-abort bloggers roundly decried the bill as an attempt to legalize killing abortion providers. One policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute called the law “really chilling.” “We have not seen anything like this before,” she told Reuters.

But Jensen told the news service that the bill “has nothing to do with abortion” and was meant to protect unborn children from domestic violence.

“Let’s say an ex-boyfriend finds out his ex-girlfriend is pregnant with his baby and decides to beat on her abdomen to kill the unborn child,” Jensen said. “This is an illegal act and the purpose of this bill is to bring continuity to South Dakota code as it relates to the unborn child.”

According to the Washington Post, Jensen is considering revamping the bill’s language to protect physicians who kill unborn children legally.

“There’s no way in the world that I or any other representatives wish to see abortion doctors murdered,” Jensen told the Post’s Greg Sargent. “So we’re looking at some language that will include that. We’re looking at some language that would protect abortion providers.”

Jensen later provided the Post with draft language that limited the bill’s scope to harm against unborn children “that is unlawful.”