Still confused over South Dakota

One thing that’s clear about South Dakota is the confusion that led the protection of life law to defeat, and the people of life to bafflement over why.

We talked about the election and the issues this morning on the Morning Air program on Relevant Radio. Some well-informed callers raised questions that even some pro-life media haven’t answered yet, and I’ve received email saying more of the same. So let’s see what we know.

First of all, as I’ve repeated here and on my radio show many times, the “Women’s Health and Human Life Protection Law”, otherwise known as the ‘abortion ban’ in South Dakota did have a rape and incest exception. Period. It’s in HB 1215, section 3, and I’ve always said it is the most carefully worded, finely crafted exception clause in existence. THAT’s what proved to be its weakness, and why Planned Parenthood took it to a referendum instead of to court, because they knew they could convince the good, compassionate people of South Dakota that the law did not have an exception for rape and incest. It was just too obscure for the pro-life forces to work with in trying to convince the public that women were, indeed, protected in that way.

Kate wrote in and said that, even knowing where to look for the exception and hearing it explained,

“it is the language, difficult to understand for the average Joe…the writers of the bill set this up to fail.”

By default, Kate, not through any intention. Their intention was to make the ‘morning-after’, or Plan B, emergency contraception available to victims of rape and incest for roughly a week after the incident. That way, one of three things would happen: no fertilization would have occurred in the first place; the emergency contraception would prevent fertilization from occurring; or in rare instance, a fertilized egg would not be able to implant, and the woman would never know that any life was conceived and therefore not suffer the traumatic effects of knowing she ended the life of her own child. The drafters of the bill found that to be the most acceptable possible scenario that protects the woman.

Here’s another thing we know. Those legislators will go back to work now. They’re the ones who studied it, wrote the bill and passed it. They all soundly won their primaries last Spring, while every legislator who voted against this bill lost theirs. They’re in the majority. Governor Mike Rounds is very pro-life also, as is the majority of South Dakota citizens. They will rework the legislation and move ahead with it again. The crisis pregnancy center warriors for women out there are not going to stop their campaign to protect life and protect women in crisis.

And we know, by the way, that many other states have not only been watching South Dakota, they’ve begun drafting their own similar legislation. This will not be stopped, and Planned Parenthood’s days of enjoying the profits of abortion on demand are numbered. They eked out this victory in South Dakota, but the wheels on their wagon are wobbly and coming off, while the freight train of life protection steams on toward the Supreme Court. This drive is not over by a long shot, but the end is in sight. Still. 

Get to work now.