A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of “justifiable homicide” to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus—a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state’s GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon….If the bill passes, it could in theory allow a woman’s father, mother, son, daughter, or husband to kill anyone who tried to provide that woman an abortion—even if she wanted one.
This is from Kate Sheppard, who reports that South Dakota already has no abortion providers and relies on a Planned Parenthood doctor who flies into a clinic once a week. Presumably that doctor is pretty well guarded, but still: if this law passes would you want to fly into South Dakota once a week knowing that every wannabe 007 in the state now feels like he has a license to kill? Nope. Which, of course, is the whole point.
UPDATE: The sponsor of the legislation says this is all a bunch of hooey. Greg Sargent:
I just had a spirited conversation with the bill’s chief sponsor, State Representative Phil Jensen, and he defended the bill, arguing that it would not legalize the killing of abortion doctors. “It would if abortion was illegal,” he told me. “This code only deals with illegal acts. Abortion is legal in this country. This has nothing to do with abortion.” In other words, since abortion is not “homicide,” the law could not apply.
….When I asked Jensen what the purpose of the law was, if its target isn’t abortion providers, he provided the following example: “Say an ex-boyfriend who happens to be father of a baby doesn’t want to pay child support for the next 18 years, and he beats on his ex-girfriend’s abdomen in trying to abort her baby. If she did kill him, it would be justified. She is resisting an effort to murder her unborn child.”
I report, you decide.
