The State House of Representatives in North Dakota today passed a bill that would effectively outlaw all abortions within the state.
It has yet to pass the state Senate, but it's looking like it could be possible that this sets up the next challenge against Roe v. Wade if it passes.
More details, after the jump.
KX Net reports:
The House voted 51-41 this afternoon to declare that a fertilized egg has all the rights of any person.
That means a fetus could not be legally aborted without the procedure being considered murder.
Yep, that's right. The North Dakota House has established that this:
is as much of a person as any one of us reading this.
And what about Roe v. Wade? Apparently some legislators think that this somehow satisfied the requirements laid out in Roe. Republican Representative Dan Ruby of Minot, stated:
"This is the exact language that's required by Roe vs. Wade. It stipulated that before a challenge can be made, we have to identify when life begins, and that's what this does.
Again, this bill hasn't become law yet, as it must still pass the Senate and be signed into law, and quite frankly, I don't know enough about the political situation in North Dakota to know if that's a likelihood, but the fact that such an extreme bill passed any legislative body in the state is foreboding, to say the least.
As of January 2007, the makeup of the North Dakota State Senate was 26 Republicans and 21 Democrats.
The current governor of North Dakota is John Hoeven, a Republican who's been in power since 2000.
But if anyone can offer any more insights on ND politics, I'd love to hear them.