A funny thing is happening on the right wing's campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade using the South Dakota abortion ban. Led by the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, the people of South Dakota are intervening. They have collected enough signatures to get a measure on the ballot to repeal the ban:
An abortion rights group Tuesday submitted more than twice the number of the signatures needed to hold a statewide vote in November on whether to repeal South Dakota's ban on abortion.Great work. Now the campaign begins.
The Legislature earlier this year passed the strictest abortion law in the nation, banning all abortions except those necessary to save a woman's life. The law, scheduled to take effect July 1, makes no exceptions for rape or incest.
The measure was aimed at sparking a court fight that supporters hope will lead to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established the right to an abortion.
A couple months ago, I saw the sponsor of the SD ban, Roger Hunt, on CNN. He maintained that his law would overturn Roe. He's calculating that by the time the case got to the Supreme Court, there would be another new Bush appointee on the Court:
CROWLEY: Roger Hunt has always believed abortion is wrong. And South Dakota has a long history of antiabortion legislation. What gives this particular bill its juice is a reconstituted, more conservative U.S. Supreme Court, and one liberal member Justice John Paul Stevens about to celebrate his 86th birthday.These guys think long term. They have an agenda. Their agenda affects the privacy of all Americans, not just on choice. That's the tip of the iceberg.
HUNT: So that means President Bush is probably going to have the opportunity in the next two to three years to appoint a third nominee to the United States Supreme Court..
SD can stop them in their tracks.
