In a heated campaign one can easily imagine happening in Kansas, South Dakota is weighing whether to outlaw abortion at the Nov. 7 election. A month ago, the proposed ban on all abortions (except to save a mother’s life) led by 8 percentage points in an opinion poll. A newer poll shows voters disliking it as too severe. At the very least, such a ballot initiative ought to get out the vote in the state. But what a painful debate to be having. And as Sioux Falls obstetrician-gynecologist Maria Bell told the Washington Post, “To think passing a law will stop abortion is incredibly naive.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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20 Comments
You know what?To pass a law outlawing the use of illegal narcotics while believing that it would stop all drug dealers from dealing drugs is incredibly naive too.To pass a law outlawing murder while believing that no one will kill anybody in cold blood is incredibly naive as well.To pass a law criminalizing grand theft auto while believing that it would stop all carjackers from hot-wiring your car is incredibly naive too!
If legislators followed the reasoning of Maria Bell, then I guess we should never have laws against drugs, theft, and murder because such laws of ours aren’t stopping everyone from breaking these laws.
Will, check out this abortion in progress.
http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2006/08/choose_life.php
Please let it pass.
This is what the liberal majority in this country needs, a wake-up call to take their country back.
I thought they already passed it and was in court already? Or maybe I was thinking of another case.
It just shows how influential and powerful the anti-aborition lobby is.
People need to read “Freakonomics” to understand what a positive impact that legalize aborition has had on our society.
Joe Williams,
The measure was approved by the South Dakota Legislature. The referendum is meant to take the decision directly to the voters.
They should outlaw those mass-murdering “fertility” clinics.
They are just a front for mass murdering Sam’s snowflake babies.
Poor Sam. Why doesn’t he save them?What can we do to save the snowflakes?Terrorize fertility doctors?Come on all you christians,LETS GET ‘EM.They murder those poor helpless frozen babies!!
I adopted a frozen embryo, it’s sitting in my freezer. Now give me my damn tax break!
GOD BLESS YOU DOUG.SORRY THE BIBLE HAS TO SAY SOMEWHERE THAT YOU DON’T GET THE REWARD TILL YOU DIE.If that’s not good enough, we need to lobby for a snowflake deduction.
This is exactly why we need people who are willing to get active in the process, to keep this from happening in our state. NOW and allies effectively blocked ALL legislation put up by the anti’s. The anti’s are not interested in the facts, they don’t care about women.
This is the response about fetal homicide laws from the anti-woman crowd..
“In as many areas as we can, we want to put on the books that the embryo is a person. That sets the stage for a jurist to acknowledge that human beings at any stage of development deserve protection — even protection that would trump a woman’s interest in terminating a pregnancy,” Samuel B. Casey, Executive Director of the Christian Legal Society was quoted saying in a 2003 Los Angeles Times article.”
There is a reason the anti-abortion crowd are the ones so quick to get behind this kind of legislation. And with the death of Chelsea Brooks, I’m sure this will be passed this year in Kansas as well.
There would be no exception for mental health, they don’t consider that to be serious enough- all we have to do is look at Andrea Yates to know that mental health is very much a serious issue when it comes to pregnancy.
Not serious enough…women risked death with coat hangers, back-alley doctors, and even poisoned themselves just to avoid pregnancy. If one is willing to risk death- then I say mental health is certainly an issue for the woman’s life.
Join the fight for equalitywww.ksnow.org
Capn – I have no wish for it to pass. Why go back to the dark ages? The only reason it’s still debated is because the religious right want to control us. A pregnancy forced upon a woman can make for tragic consequences. The reason you don’t hear as much brouhaha from the pro-choice camp is because we’re more willing to live and let live. Anti’s are not.As a past clinic defender I’m ready to get back to the clinic if needed. What really pisses me off is that we’ve been reduced to voting based on issues that have nothing to do with running the country, and everything to do with the religious right telling us how to live.
Joe – Please tell me what the book says. I would appreciate knowing without having to go find the book. thanks! P.S. How’s the Peerless Princess coming?
It only takes 51% of the electorate to pass a law. Unfortunately it takes a much higher percentage of popular support for a law to be effective, somewhere in the 80-95% range.When you have a law that doesn’t have that kind of support, such as prohibition or our current drug laws, there is really no way it can be enforced. Black markets spring up, and the general lawlessness surrounding them is usually far more harmful than whatever was outlawed in the first place.You want abortion outlawed, but you don’t have the heartfelt support of the needed majority. Please, stop right there! What you are creating will end up being far worse than the problem you currently perceive. Abortions will be done by medically unqualified people, often in less than sterile surroundings, with patients who are afraid to seek help when things do go wrong, and end up dying, or worse.I’m sure you feel that oh well, they are just getting what they deserve, at least until one of them is your wife, your friend, your daughter. And one of them will be, eventually. Statistically, it’s inevitable.Laws are a fragile thing, at best, and shouldn’t be used as a solution for all perceived problems. Usually, when someone says “there ought to be a law,” there shouldn’t!
Jed,So essentially you’re saying that legislators should make laws based on “popular support?” So let’s say 51% of Americans are behind the immigration laws, would you then say that such laws should therefore be repealed because of it’s impracticality of being implied?Or are you really trying to achieve your Pro-Choice camps agenda to bend the will of the American people towards your own view of what you yourself deem as “lawful” or “just?”
I am on to you.
Jed,I am interested about your opinion on the Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment.Since 80% of Kansas voters supported the law, does that mean that it’s okay to keep it because 80% of Kansas voters support it? If not, then aren’t you really leaving the decisions to legislators themselves?
WichiWomn. I don’t know if this helps. When I did a Google search there were people who critize the research because it was controversial and upset anti-abortionist.
But this is from the direct website of the book.,
http://www.freakonomics.com/ch4.php
The Peerless Tower you mean? ;) Yeah! It’s going well. Revamped the website and hoping to launch an advertisement awareness campaign, once I recieve the 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, which takes forever. ;)
Thanks! You made my day! :)
Will,I am stating that any ban on abortion will be impossible to enforce. I know this first hand. I had a semi-relative who was a chiropractor in this town from 1949-1973. His practice was almost exclusively pre-Roe v. Wade abortions. He had three friends, also chiropractors who did the same. From the figures I got from him, and estimating the figures for his friends, I determined that there were likely more abortions per year then in the Wichita area before Roe v. Wade than since.All I’m saying is that unenforcible laws are worse than no laws at all.As for the hate amendment, I can’t see that standing the tests of time, human decency or the courts. It’ll be one of those periods our state history books will mostly pass over.
Joe, thanks. I have read that information before, just forgot where it came from I guess.
Glad to hear the Peerless Tower is is going well for you. Hadn’t seen much about it for awhile.
Will, the results were 71% against marriage and 29% in favor of marriage.
OK, so everyone is saying that if it becomes illegal to have abortions that females will go and get abortions with hangers and with unquialified doctors and can die. That IS so true. BUT, that is only because they dont have that mental support. Most of those girls must be young and their parents arent supportive, and people today look at young moms as unfit. WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN IS MAKE ABORTION ILLEGAL UNLESS TO SAVE THE MOM, AND GET MORE SUPPORT GROUPS OUT THERE. GET MORE INFO OUT THERE FOR ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE, AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AS WELL AS PARENTS. PARENTS NEED TO BE MORE OPEN AND CARING WITH THEIR CHILDREN AND STOP THINKING THAT BEING A YOUNG PARENT IS SO WRONG. pass condoms around, get on birth control, or just dont have sex at all. If raped happened, which is a really serious case, adoption. I am pro life all the way. Adoption is better than becoming a MURDERER. People wont want to be friends with someone that murdered another child, or adult, yet, theyre ok with someone who murdered someone inside of them? ADOPTION, CONDOMS, BIRTH CONTROL, SUPPORT. are all option. ABORTIONS shouldnt be. And this comes from an 18yr old single mom. Some people wanted me to have abortion bc I was 16 and pregnant. I DID not. I had sex, so I took resposibility. If you dont feel like youre capable to have a child, let someone adopt him. And if he/she doesnt get adopted, they will learn and make sure that they WILL be a great parent. DONT KILL anymore innocent children.
Very well said Sarai. I hope people take notice. There is never a good reason for abortion. In teenage pregnant girls, the recitivism rate of pregnancy is higher in girls that have had abortions than have kept the baby and placed them in a loving adoptive homes. It is also MUCH better for their long term mental and physical well being. Of course, the pro-choice (money making) industry doesn’t want that dirty little secret out. Follow the money.