Down to business in South Dakota

The lawmakers who passed the most cutting edge pro-life legislation in the country last year are back at the table after suffering a setback from Planned Parenthood’s campaign against it.

Abortion opponents,

(that’s Associated Press-speak for ‘pro-life advocates’)

hoping to get around voters’ objections to a previous measure, announced a bill Monday that would ban the procedure in the state except in limited instances.

Those who oppose abortion

(those who uphold the sanctity of life) 

hope the measure will become the vehicle for a legal challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

State lawmakers approved a bill last year that would have permitted abortions only when women’s lives were in danger, but a petition campaign put the issue on the ballot. Voters rejected the proposal in November by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent.

The latest legislation is designed to appeal to voters who oppose abortion but feel there should be exceptions in cases of rape, incest and serious endangerment of a woman’s health. Last year’s measure did not contain those exclusions.

Yes, it did.

But, as I said, it was only a setback.