South Dakota Wants To Make Killing Abortion Providers "Justifiable Homicide"

[filkertom]

I have no idea what the hell's happened to my country.

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.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Phil Jensen, a committed foe of abortion rights, alters the state’s legal definition of justifiable homicide by adding language stating that a homicide is permissible if committed by a person “while resisting an attempt to harm” that person’s unborn child or the unborn child of that person’s spouse, partner, parent, or child. 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.

I bet this ratbastard wants smaller government, too.

What the fuck is wrong with these insane assholes who have to control women's bodies and sexuality, force people to alter their lives, save fetuses they don't give a shit about once the kid is born, and stick their noses in everyone else's business? Because their God tells them to? That little First Amendment thing just doesn't mean what it says, after all.

It doesn't even matter that this is as unconstitutional as it gets. It's that the nutbars are so thoroughly in charge of the asylum, the rational is so thoroughly divorced from the actual conversation, that this foul creature feels he can comfortably submit a bill like this, one that would make it legal to kill someone performing, or possibly even getting, a legal medical procedure. Oh, yeah, that's "pro-life".

Jayzus fucking fuck.

Comments

[per_solo]

I want to talk about this on the 'cast...the problem is, I'm so thoroughly demoralized after crap yesterday in class, that I can't work the energy. Am going to save this, however, and talk on it as soon as I can.

I'm just beat...between Indiana trying to make shit worse for homosexuals, and then this...I'm trying to figure where on the PLANET I can go where people respect each other, even when they disagree..and overall believe in individual rights.

*shakes head* Ugh.

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

From personal experience- Germany is actually quite good with the personal rights thing. Much better than my country these days, unfortunately.

(I'm an ex-pat American living in Hamburg, Germany for the last 4 years)

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Nothing is wrong with the people. They are not broken, or damaged, or otherwise behaving in any way outside the specifications of our species.

Humans aren't nice, tolerant, peaceable critters, and never have been. Killing each other for small things has historically been the norm.

Extra Headdesk Just For You

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

... I suppose it's good to know where you stand.

THE REASON WE HAVE LAWS is to make people behave within a certain set of what we laughingly call "civilized behavior". So that our lives aren't day-in, day-out street fights, raids for food or clothes or trinkets or DVDs, constant rape sessions, etc. Not that they would be anyway, as most people seem to be able to get along without somehow befouling the communal nest.

Saying people generally suck, it's just human nature, etc., etc., is in no way helpful. For example, are you the type likely to kill someone for small things? Feel like bumping off a shopowner who marked up the chips an extra fifty cents? Or, to keep it on topic, have you had the urge to take an AK-47 to a Planned Parenthood office lately?

I'm not the type to go back over your many comments here, nor to haunt your LJ and discern your typical thoughts on these matters, so I can't help but ask: Is that how you maintain your equilibrium in a constantly-outraging world? By shrugging and saying, "That's the way it is"? Because, if it is, fine, dandy, I'll know not to ask again.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

And what is the problem with smaller government?

[darthgm.livejournal.com]

Nothing, as long as they're not making an escape clause for a Pro-Life lunatic with a pair of Glocks with extended magazines.

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

I have no appropriate icon. I heard this on the radio this morning, and I couldn't remember if this was the same state that declared that astrology causes global warming (http://www.smarterearth.org/content/south-dakota-legislature-declares-astrology-can-explain-global-warming).

It is.

I think they should pass a law that says they can only pass one new law per year... Preferably one that has nothing to do with women or children.

[markiqueen.livejournal.com]

While this is worrisome as a sign of the times, I think it's downright horrific in this context. Partly, this is because South Dakota has a huge issue with domestic abuse and gender issues throughout the state (I can't find the statistics right now, but I'm sure they're somewhere). This seems, to me, like an extension and justification of that.

[pandoradeloeste.livejournal.com]

Someone on another forum commented that they can't wait for someone to use this defense to completely subvert the autonomy-defeating intent behind it - for example, for a pregnant woman to kill her abuser, with the defense that hir abuse was endangering the fetus.

[qraccoon.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what to say anymore. Between the "forced rape" bill and the added "hospitals don't have to give a woman an abortion even if it will save her life" thing, I feel like everyone just wants women to be dead. How do you deal with people that are legislating your death? People that feel that you matter less than a small lump of cells that may be inside you? That anyone who might help you should die too?

That they call themselves "pro-life" just galls.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I've been saying for years that they call themselves "pro-life" to obscure their amateur status.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

The thing that gets me is...

"while resisting an attempt to harm"

Not abort. Not even kill. Harm.

That is a barn door SO wide open.

Anyone who runs a clinic that performs abortions could be presumed to be making an attempt to harm the unborn, even if the unborn isn't actually due to be aborted.

Anyone who advises a pregnant woman about abortion options is making an attempt to harm the unborn.

It could even get so far as someone arguing that anyone who advocates the right to an abortion is themselves seeking the harm of the unborn- in short, open season on liberals.

And this is a case I do NOT want getting before the current Supreme Court. Anthony Kennedy might well side with the conservatives in ruling that civil rights (such as the right to live) begin at conception- thus overturning Roe v. Wade regardless of what else is done with the case in question.

But this is what happens when (a) religious zealots gain control of what amounts to half the political system of an entire nation, (b) said nation allows no practical option for competition in elections beyond the two established ruling parties, and (c) the media marketplace allows the zealots to run multiple news media propaganda channels without producing a strong counter-propaganda system to compete with it. Political discourse has been steadily pushed farther and farther to the right- to the point that a supposedly liberal Democratic President was only barely persuaded not to advocate cuts to Social Security in his proposed budget.

[occams_pyramid]

Anyone smoking near a pregnant woman.
Anyone selling alcohol to a pregnant woman.
Anyone releasing industrial pollution near a pregnant woman.

[pagawne.livejournal.com]

I remember watching a 16 year old girl bleed out, while we were pumping blood into her as fast as we could. Yes, this was before Roe V Wade, and legal abortions were almost impossible, even to save the life of the mother.

This is a good time for "NEVER AGAIN!"

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

*hug*

while we were pumping blood into her as fast as we could

That must have been horrific. Thank you for trying to help her, even if you couldn't save her.

Other proposed laws

[rothesis.livejournal.com]

I figure he has to be a good freind of the the Missouri state senator who has decided to repeal child labor laws. See link below.

http://www.firedupmissouri.com/content/jane-cunningham-says-enough-our-stupid-child-labor-laws-already

Once I was a true independant voter. Lately I assme republican = corrupt, crazy, or both; democrat = incompetant; and libertaian = self-satisfied with no compassion.

Re: Other proposed laws

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

I was hoping that was a Onion article...
I should've known better.

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

Y'know, The Handmaid's Tale wasn't intended as an instruction manual....

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

And 1984 wasn't intended as a manifesto.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

According to the Washington Post, the bill's author says he really didn't mean it that way.

Riiiiiight.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Well, apparently that is possible--the bill was "hoghoused," meaning it was heavily amended in committee.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Okayyy.. it's beginning to look like someone should introduce mandatory drug testing and psyche evaluation for politicians, because damn!! They're acting crazier than sh*thouse rats!

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

I thought this was something the Onion had thought up. It's really wrong in so many ways that something like this can even be thought of in a real way. I wonder what these "people" would think if we made noise about killing idiot politicians as justifiable homicide.

[arensb.livejournal.com]

Seems like as good a time as any to repost this:



(I don't remember where this comes from, unfortunately, or else I'd attribute it. Possibly here.)

[his-spiffyness.livejournal.com]

At this rate of crazy, I'm half expecting Sarah Palin will win the next election.

I guess I should brush up on my Spanish and move South. Canada's too damn cold for me.

[occams_pyramid]

Yes, I get the horrible feeling Heinlein might have got the date right.

[hbruton.livejournal.com]

American politics get scarier and scarier. The head long rush to the religous right makes the Us look more and more like a Christian theocracy. Not my idea of a good time for woman, minorities, immigrants and anyone else who is different.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I tell ya. My lottery dreams have jacked up to the buying-a-private-island-and-inviting-all-my-friends stage.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I've been ranting about this at my place. Have you noticed that the underlying theme of this bill *and* the Lila Rose Planned Parenthood "sting" is "sluts have no rights"?

A woman who's pregnant has been having sex after all. So according to Rose, she doesn't have an expectation of doctor/patient confidentiality, unbiased medical care, or people helping translate for her. And now according to Jensen's defense of his own bill, it's not supposed to be about killing abortion doctors, it's supposed to be "allowing" women to defend themselves from someone who, say, might be beating her to end the pregnancy.

Because, of course, once the tart got knocked up, she apparently has no more right to defend HERSELF from deadly force.

It's not about the so-called innocent baby. It's about making sure that women learn that they can't have sex and keep their personal rights to ANYTHING, including self-defense.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

"It's about making sure that women learn that they can't have sex and keep their personal rights to ANYTHING, including self-defense."

Slightly facetious here, but it's too bad there's not a way to make that one backfire. I'm thinking there must be a variation on Lysistrata that would apply.

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

My comment after Dr. Tiller's murder was to the effect of wondering when the other side would start doing a little retaliation in kind.

Hmmm...you know, that might make a good story to write one of these days. DIBS!

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

The irony is that these people call the pro-choice crowds (or at least abortion providers and the women who seek their services) murderers -- but I can't think of a single example of a pro-choice extremist going out to bomb an anti-abortion rally, or shooting an anti-abortion activist on the steps of their Goddamned church. It's almost bloody hilarious that these elements seem to be found exclusively within a movement calling itself 'pro-life'.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

I'm pro-life myself but even I see that this is a baddly written law and is open to all kinds of interpretation. I've never supported the the use of the "wanted" posters that some in my camp use. It is just asking for harm to come to the doctors and clinicians.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

That's the thing. There are differences, and there's no way I can see the differences being easily or rationally settled. But this goes way over the line into justifying, even requiring on some levels, violence with intent to harm or kill.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with pretty much everyone's comments here. If this bill does pass, I hope they keep the phrase "unborn child" in it. That would make the law unenforcable since the child is a stage in human development between toddler and tweener. In short, they're already born making "unborn child" an oxymoron and demonstrate that this horrible law is about emotion and not logic. Unfortunately that will only come up during a murder trial and by then it will be too late.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

It has been pointed out (Don't remember where, but honesty prevents me from taking credit for the idea) that that proposed law was broadly written enough that a pregnant woman could in theory kill anyone who she thought was a threat to their fetus. If by some chance it passes, it would then be legal for someone who goes to Planned Parenthood for prenatal care to start blasting away at protesters; The stress they put her under put her unborn baby at risk, you see.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I wish that was a less tempting idea, I really do...

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Coming at this from a slightly different angle...

The economy is still hemorraging, we're still enmeshed in two unnecessary wars, families are losing their homes and livelihoods, and THIS is all they can think of to do?

Neropublicans -- fiddling with trivial shit while America burns around them.

[tcgtrf.livejournal.com]

So, are you ready yet to admit that the governments (state and federal) just *might* be the enemy?

Tom T.

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

Baby. Bathwater.

[bonnie-rocks.livejournal.com]

::Headdesk:: I just... I can't even... To quote Richard Bey, "WHERE DO THEY FIND THESE PEOPLE?!!!!!"

~*::Meow::*~

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

I just made the first available appointment to consult with an OB/GYN about the Essure (sterilization) procedure.

If I had the money, I'd go to some concierge hospital and get a uterine hysterectomy and pay to be allowed to keep the uterus afterward, so I could film myself stabbing it repeatedly and upload it to YouTube as a political statement.

This is why $DEITY conspires to never let me win the lottery.