S. Dakota Repubs Want To Legalize Murder of Abortion Doctors

[Wiregeek]

http://www.nytimes.com/20...akota.html&OQ=_rQ3D1

South Dakota Shelves Bill Aimed at Defending Unborn
By A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: February 16, 2011
A
state bill to expand the definition of justifiable homicide in South
Dakota to include killing someone in the defense of an unborn child was
postponed indefinitely Wednesday after an uproar over whether the
legislation would put abortion providers at greater risk.
The
House speaker, Val Rausch, said that the legislation had been shelved,
pending a decision on whether to allow a vote, amend the language or
drop it entirely. A spokesman for Gov. Dennis Daugaard said, "Clearly
the bill as it's currently written is a very bad idea."
The bill,
approved by the House Judiciary Committee last week on a 9-to-3
party-line vote, establishes in part that "homicide is justifiable if
committed by any person in the lawful defense of such person, or of his
or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or
the unborn child of any such enumerated person."
The phrasing
caused concern and disbelief on both sides of the abortion debate, with
activists in the abortion rights and anti-abortion movements calling the
language poorly conceived at best, and perhaps an incitement to
violence. The bill was cheered, though, by those anti-abortion activists
who argue that the use of violence is justified to stop doctors from
carrying out abortions.
Dr. Marvin Buehner, of Rapid City, S.D.,
who is the only doctor in the region to provide abortions for women
whose health and safety are at risk, said he was shaken by the measure.
"Once
you get the sense that the Legislature will tolerate violence against
abortion providers, even if the legislation is not enacted, it crosses
the line into intimidation," he said.
Troy Newman, leader of
Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group, said he was "shocked" when he
read the bill, which he worried could encourage violence. "The pro-life
movement, by definition, is in favor of protecting human life from the
moment of conception to natural death, and we reject all forms of
violence," he said.
Republican supporters of the legislation said
it was being misinterpreted as an anti-abortion measure, The intent,
they say, is to afford equal protection to unborn children in existing
law.
But Sarah Stoesz, president of the local Planned Parenthood
chapter, said she also doubted the sponsors' claims that the legislation
was not intended to be an anti-abortion measure. "It's a very clear
shift in the conversation," she said. "We have never had a public
conversation about whether it's right to kill a doctor."
Several people convicted of killing abortion providers have tried unsuccessfully to use the justifiable homicide argument.
Dave
Leach, an Iowa anti-abortion activist, praised the bill, saying it
could end abortions in South Dakota by scaring away doctors or by
establishing grounds for someone to kill those who stay.
"There
may be something I'm overlooking, but from all appearances, this bill
would certainly justify an individual taking the life of an abortionist
in order to save human lives," he said.

"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies