WASHINGTON (ABP) — South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds (R) signed the nation's most sweeping abortion ban into law March 6, setting up a battle that could wind up in the Supreme Court.
Rounds gave his assent to the so-called “Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act” just days after the state's legislature made international headlines for approving the bill. It would ban all abortions in South Dakota except for those performed to save a mother's life. Doctors who perform banned abortions could face $5,000 fines and prison sentences.
The law's backers hope it will challenge Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a woman's right to abortion in the Constitution. The new bill does not contain exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest or those that would endanger the mother's health.
“In the history of the world, the true test of a civilization is how well people treat the most vulnerable and most helpless in their society,” Rounds said, in a statement released after he signed the bill. “The sponsors and supporters of this bill believe that abortion is wrong because unborn children are the most vulnerable and most helpless persons in our society. I agree with them.”
Rounds also said he expects the law will not take effect July 1 as planned because abortion-rights groups are almost certain to sue to stop the law's implementation, and likely would be successful.
Abortion-rights opponents have been divided over the strategy of directly challenging Roe with the court's current make-up. Even if newly appointed Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito vote to overturn Roe — which is not guaranteed — the court would still have five votes for upholding the decision's core. A decision once again upholding Roe would add to the weight of 33 years of legal precedent behind it.
But Rounds noted that the high court has reversed itself before, citing the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring racial segregation in public schools illegal. It explicitly overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision allowing segregation. “The 1954 court determined that its earlier interpretation of the Constitution was wrong,” Rounds said.
Other abortion opponents said the timing is always right to challenge Roe. “We firmly believe that it is the responsibility of the pro-life movement to always push as hard as possible for full protection of every baby in the womb,” said a statement praising Rounds' action from the Virginia-based American Life League. “As much as we humans try to convince ourselves that we can determine the exact time when certain legislation should be passed, the reality is that it is God's time that is important.”
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