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The primary struggle for reproductive choice has shifted to the state level, with new legislation limiting access to reproductive health care traveling from state to state until enough momentum develops to bring it to the national arena. Many states currently have restrictions on abortion that could result in outright bans if Roe v. Wade is overturned. In such a climate, we need healthy state organizations to stop each new threat as it arises. RCRC works at the state level with our affiliates. Click here to learn more.

South Dakota
On March 6, Gov. Mike Rounds (R) of South Dakota signed a bill into law that will prohibit all abortions in the state except if a woman is dying. The law makes South Dakota the first state to ban all abortions except if a doctor decides the procedure is necessary to save a woman's life. On November 7, voters will decide whether to uphold the ban or strike it down.

South Dakota is already the state with the strictest abortion regulations. There is a 24-hour waiting period and mandatory counseling to discourage the procedure. The law requires parental notification in cases where the patient is a minor. Only one clinic, Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls, offers the procedure. About 800 abortions are performed annually. Often patients must drive past picketers. No local doctor will go near this clinic so, one day each week, a physician flies in from Minnesota to provide abortions.

Under the new law, doctors will face up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for performing an abortion. But doctors performing an abortion would not be charged with a crime as long as they make "reasonable medical efforts" to "preserve both the life of the mother and the life of her unborn child." Under changes made by the state Senate Affairs Committee, the bill states that "a pregnant mother and her unborn child each possess a natural and inalienable right to life" and due process under the South Dakota Constitution.

State Senator Bill Napolis, who strongly backs the ban, thinks abortion should be available in extremely limited cases. "A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life." Napoli says most abortions are performed for what he calls "convenience."

Supporters of the bill said it was designed as a direct challenge to Roe. They said the timing is right to challenge the Roe decision, given the recent appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito to the high court. Both have said they oppose Roe v. Wade. On November 8, the Supreme Court will hear another challenge to Roe v. Wade, the Federal Abortion Ban ("Partial-Birth Abortion Ban of 2003"), which is expected to reveal the extent to which the high court, with the two new Bush appointees, will restrict abortion rights.

In 1992, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the basic holding of Roe v. Wade--that a woman's health and life must be protected in any law on abortion--in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, but left open the way for restrictions. Since then, states have passed dozens of restrictions involving mandatory notification and counseling. The South Dakota law concludes that life begins at conception based on medical advances over the past three decades. Proposed amendments to the law to create exceptions to specifically protect the health of the woman, or in cases of rape or incest, were voted down. Also defeated was an amendment to put the proposal in the hands of voters.

Some legislators opposed to abortion rights questioned whether it was premature to challenge Roe v. Wade, and said litigation would prove expensive for the sparsely populated state. An anonymous donor has offered $1 million to the state to defray the costs of litigation.

Other States
State legislatures in Ohio, Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missippi introduced measures similar to South Dakota's this year.