House approves abortion ban 45 to 25

By Bill Harlan, Journal staff | Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

PIERRE--A new abortion ban that would go to a statewide vote in 2008 sailed through the South Dakota House of Representatives on Wednesday by a vote of 45 to 25.

Now House Bill 1293 goes to the Senate.

Unlike the abortion ban that voters rejected last November, HB1293 has exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother n though opponents of the bill say the requirements to qualify for those exceptions are too onerous.

Rep. Gordon Howie, R-Rapid City, a sponsor of the measure, led off the half-hour debate on the House floor.

“The rights that we’re discussing are not ours to give. They’re given by our Creator,” Howie told House colleagues. “Those rights are ours to defend. We believe in bringing this bill we’re fulfilling a responsibility to defend those rights on behalf of those who are most innocent and the most vulnerable.”

The most innocent are unborn children, Howie said, and the most vulnerable are women.

Howie also introduced a page and a half of amendments to the bill, which depart from the version that state Attorney General Larry Long recommended to a legislative committee on Monday.

“It looks pretty complicated and convoluted,” Rep. Clayton Halverson, D-Vebelen said.

Howie said he introduced the amendments after “significant consultation” with Long’s office, and the House approved them on a voice vote.

Kate Looby, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood in South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota, said she was disappointed by the House vote but optimistic the Senate would reject HB1293. “This bill allows the government to intrude into the private lives of South Dakotans,” she said.

Abortion foes did not win every fight Wednesday.

Three abortion-related bills were killed during state Senate committee hearings.

Senate Bill 171 would have required abortion clinics to post a notice in waiting rooms and exam rooms that it is against the law for anyone to force or coerce a woman into having an abortion.

A companion bill, SB172, would have required doctors to read an 11-point “statement of law” to women before abortions were performed. (For example: “That the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.”)

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4 to 3 to deny the bills a vote of the full Senate.

The third bill, HB1296, would have required abortion providers to ask women if they wanted to see a sonogram of the fetus before the abortion.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee rejected that measure 5 to 2.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com