In a move more to challenge the Supreme Court on Roe v Wade "by presenting them with such a law so clearly at odds with the original decision that the court will have to explicitly review the ruling (Hat tip - Captain's Quarters)," South Dakota moved closer to imposing some of the strictest limits on abortion in the nation as the state Senate approved legislation that would ban the procedure except when the woman's life is in danger.
The bill, designed to spark a courtroom showdown over the legality of abortion, passed 23-12 Wednesday. On Thursday, it was headed back to the House, where lawmakers already approved similar legislation.
Captain Ed writes: "The primary aim of this bill isn't to outlaw abortions -- it's to challenge the Supreme Court on Roe v Wade by presenting them with such a law so clearly at odds with the original decision that the court will have to explicitly review the ruling. Other states have passed restrictions based on age and consent that have allowed the court over the past several years to nibble at the edges of Roe without having to face it honestly."
Martin Garbus, in his opinion piece at the Blow Hard Post (also known as the Huffington Post)The Supreme Court next term will reverse Stenberg v. Cathart where the Supreme Court found the Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003 unconstitutional.
Samuel Alito, replacing Sandra Day O'Connor, will now become the swing vote. Justice Kennedy, who previously voted to uphold the act on the grounds that a partial birth abortion shocked his conscience, will go along with Justice Alito. Any illusion that Justice Kennedy would step into Justice O'Connor's "swing position" will be shattered.All in all, a good first step, but much more to be done to provent the murder of unborn children, simply out of convenience to the mother.A recent study found that 94% of the counties in the Mid-West and 91% in the South had no abortion provider. Thirty-four percent of all women live in counties that do not have one. That is the situation with Roe v. Wade.
This is just the beginning. South Dakota's new law, the most sweeping anti-abortion law passed by any state since Roe v. Wade, will, when it reaches the Supreme Court, also be upheld.
By the time the South Dakota law arrives in the Supreme Court, the probabilities are that two of the present liberal justices will be gone. Justice John Paul Stevens is 85 and the next oldest judge is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The decision in these two abortion cases, the partial-birth abortion case coming up next term and the South Dakota law, give us a window into the next 25 years of Supreme Court decisions. The original anti-abortion plan to eviscerate the present law in small ways - by parental notification rules, waiting periods before abortions, and enormous financial and paperwork requirements for clinics, will soon become unnecessary.
We now will see a frontal attack on Roe v. Wade rather than the attacks solely on restrictions. Encouraged, Conservatives will also start to make a frontal attack on some of the most significant decisions of Roosevelt's New Deal Court and the Warren Court.
The Roberts and Alito nominations are the beginning of a powerful Conservative Court that will dramatically change this country.
How one defends taking the life of unborn children, who are no threat to their mother other than an economic or societal inconvenience, is, to me, beyond the comprehension of a reasonable mind.
Cross-posted: Hyscience
