Everyone's been talking theoretically about the everlasting legacy of Bush(es) nomination of conservative judges with an eye to overturning Roe. One of the Fundies' strategies is death by a thousand cuts -- make acquiring an abortion so burdensome that it is not attainable at all.
A main battleground is South Dakota -- and South Dakota is well on its way to making all abortions illegal in the state. Follow me after the jump to read about the latest barrier that has just been ruled constitutional. It goes without saying that other states will now pass similar laws.
Last April, the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney represented Planned Parenthood in a case before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in our challenge to a South Dakota law that requires doctors in the state to give ideologically charged information to any woman seeking abortion services. The case was brought by Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (PPMNS) along with PPFA. Among other provisions, the South Dakota law requires doctors to inform women seeking abortion services that the abortion would "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."
Planned Parenthood had asked the court to strike the law as unconstitutional. Prior federal court rulings supported that position, and a preliminary injunction was granted. But the case was then heard "en banc," by all the justices on the Eighth Circuit. In a 7–4 decision, the judges vacated the injunction and ruled that the law is constitutional.
This is the only such law existing in the nation, but you can imagine the future legislation in other states with this type of law being declared legal. Planned Parenthood attorneys are contemplating the next legal steps. The law could go into effect within 21 days.
Of the seven judges writing for the majority, six were appointed by President George W. Bush, and the seventh, writing in a concurring opinion, was appointed by President George H.W. Bush.
Kossacks, the Judiciary hangs by a thread. Abortion is a medical procedure that is LEGAL and SAFE. All of that is about to change, as women have to travel large distances and those who can't travel, will resort to brutal methods to not be pregnant anymore.