South Dakota Abortion Ban, Round 2

Cartoon by Scott L. Ehrisman, SouthDaCola.com

Once again, South Dakota has an abortion ban on the ballot in November. The '06 version allowed no exceptions even to save the life of the mother and would've prevented Sigourney Weaver in Alien 3 from getting an abortion - it failed 56% to 44%.

The new one has exceptions for rape and incest victims who report the crime to police, or in cases where the woman is "at serious risk of a substantial and irreversible impairment of the functioning of a major bodily organ or system." If a ban that didn't even have these paltry loopholes can lose by such a narrow margin, it's going to take a lot more than us ripping off The Kinks to help stop this one, especially with a complete lack of a national movement against this initiative.

If you have second, go help fight this by signing the petition and donating at South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, a bipartisan group that is fighting the ballot measure, and enjoy our song "When Dakota Goes South" by clicking the play button below:

When Dakota Goes South

When Dakota goes south and takes the whole world with her
I will open my mouth and beg her to stay where she belongs
When Dakota goes south I'll try my best to forgive her
When she begs and she pouts for the robes to rule out wrong

She drives around in her Winnebago
From the Black Hills down to the River Sioux
Like a time machine wrapped inside a tornado
That will blow us back to 1972
What to do? I hope you figure it out, yeah I do

When Dakota goes south and takes the whole world with her
I will open my mouth and tell her to stay right where she is
When Dakota goes south I'll try my best to forgive her
Until she figures it out, that it's not for her to insist

She'll kick the other girls in the stomach
And wait with tapping toes as they bleed
For the man in the robe to kick in the bucket
And she'll come jumping out of the weeds
With sunflower seeds, she knows not what she needs

When Dakota goes south and takes the whole world with her
I will open my mouth and tell her to stay where she belongs
When Dakota goes south I'll try my best to forgive her
Until she figures it out, that she's got this thing all wrong

Max and the Marginalized are a band and a blog. They do a song every week on the Huffington Post, all of which are available for download here. Add them on Facebook.

Comments

[libdude]

Pro-lifer's! Who can't love 'em? The new S.D. bill will allow abortions in cases of rape or incest,
but only if the woman reports the crime to police? The women who don't report are just S O L., and criminals themselves, huh? But why stop there? Why not mandate that all pregnancies, regardless of the circumstances of the conception, be reported to the proper government (church?) authorities and monitored at regular intervals (by church elders, perhaps) for fetal development? This is a real possibility if the anti-choice block takes control. The bill also allows for an abortion in cases where the woman is at "serious risk of a substantial and irreversible impairment of the functioning of a major bodily organ or system." Will a woman's own doctor be allowed to make that call, or will government sponsored physicians have the final say about the state of a woman's health? Given that anti-choice forces don't trust a woman to make her own health care decisions anyway, it's not likely that they would trust the opinion of the doctor that the woman has chosen as her private physician, is it? Also, the other narrow exceptions for an abortion--organ or system impairment--disregard completely the psychological, emotional, social and myriad other aspects of a woman's life that could be irreversibly impaired or even destroyed totally by government interference in her health care decisions.

[MourningDude]

The FLDS fiasco has accented some of these issues.

There are people demanding all underage FLDS mothers become wards of the state, and demanding that all of their 'husbands' be thrown in jail for statutory rape. Perhaps that's a good idea. But many of those SAME people would defend an underage incest victim's right to a quiet, secretive abortion, and would demand that the family member that raped and impregnated her be protected to ensure her right to privacy.

If a person is raped and impregnated by a stranger or family member, then we absolutely should encourage it to be reported to police, don't you think? Acting as enablers by playing dumb and pretending it didn't happen doesn't help anybody.

[Rrhain]

Huh? I'm confused. Where does allowing her to maintain her own privacy on her own terms lead to protecting the one who broke the law? Why does prosecuting him make you want to force her to become a piece of evidence? Why not do both? Nail him and let her do what she thinks is best?

Don't you think it would be helpful in the prosecution of him if you were able to get her on your side? By showing that you trust her? That you think she is capable of making her own decisions?

[zizyphus]

Why do the people of South Dakota want to make women's wombs the property of the government? Are they stark, staring, nuts up there?

If you object to abortions, then don't have any, just keep your yap shut and let women decide what is best for them.

Most of the people who oppose abortion also want women blasted back to the fifteenth century in terms of human and civil rights. They would love to see women tortured and dying from lack of abortions. They despise women and their awesome reproductive power. This is because organized religions have poisoned their minds. Not one of them shows respect for women, which is why I am amazed that any woman in her right mind attends church, but such is the power of brainwashing.

[Live4literacy]

Do gun owners get a free dose of paranoia when they buy one? No one, not even liberals, want to take away your guns for goodness sake. We want responsible ownership and regulation. Jeez, you have to register your car and have a license...I don't get this illogical fear of having your precious weapons taken away.

[Bobrobert]

Wowsa.

I thought everyone had given up on saving all those poor babies.

That is something.

Just when I thought that people were beyond caring about the poor babies.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

remember to vote everyone.

:-)

[zizyphus]

After they get Roe overturned, they plan to "save" the poor, abused sperms, and to that end will require every man to prove that he has not "murdered" any of them. Surveillance cameras will help you keep pure, keeping those busy hands resting safely on top of your covers.

[1will]

Hmmm.....So if Obama believes that cities can trump the Federal Gov and ban guns at the whim of a city council or Mayor then a state is somehow wrong for banning abortion?
I guess all rights aren't equeal in the eyes of Libs.

[ksyellowdog]

How does Obama equate to a gun ban in DC? He is from Illinois. The full congress acts for the District of Columbia. What are you a moron? I hope when you have to choose between buying groceries or bullets, you choose wisely. It seems your incapable of a logical decision, stay home this November, leave the voting to those who understand what's at stake.

[MaxMarginal]

I presume you're referring to the D.C. handgun ban. I would equate the handgun ban as equivalent to banning late-term abortions, i.e. a restriction that doesn't infringe too heavily on the basic right. I'm sure people more into guns than I am would disagree with this comparison but your phrase "ban guns" denotes "ban all guns" which is of course not the case.

Also, "I guess all rights aren't equeal (sp) in the eyes of Libs." - I certainly don't think all rights are equal. The right to free speech, to me at least, is more important than the right to own guns. The right to a free press is more important to me than the 21st amendment, giving me a right to drink, so on and so forth. I know that's kind of an arbitrary preference, but not one that most people would (I hope) disagree with.

[1will]

I would say that Washington, DC banning all handguns and requiring that all long guns be rendered inoperable constitutes a ban. So far the Supreme Court seems to agree with me.

[Bobrobert]

Free speech is more important that gun ownership.

You must have great faith in god.

Remember to vote everyone.

:-)