Committee kills abortion ban

By Bill Harlan, Journal staff | Wednesday, February 21, 2007

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PIERRE--An abortion ban with exceptions for rape, incest and health of the mother was rejected Wednesday morning by legislative committee in Pierre.

The Senate State Affairs Committee just voted 8 to 1 to kill HB1293 without a vote of the full Senate.

Supporters of the bill can still force the bill out of committee with a one-third vote of the full Senate, but even key supporters of last year’s ban spoke against the measure.

Sen. Brock Greenfield, R-Clark, called abortion “a scourge on South Dakota,” and he called HB1293 a “noble effort.” But he also said the bill would not withstand a court challenge. “I do not believe there is any chance it will,” he said.

Greenfield, who also is chairman of South Dakota Right to Life, is not on the committee, but he testified as an opponent to the new ban.

Sen. Dennis Schmidt, R-Rapid City, is not on the state affairs committee either, but he led off testimony by supporters of the measure, saying the facts that formed the basis of Roe v. Wade have been proven “false and incorrect.”

Most of the committee disagreed.

Sen. Bob Gray, R-Pierre, like Greenfield, voted for last year’s total ban. Gray said he agreed with Greenfield that the bill would not survive the courts.

Senate Republican Leader Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls, another committee member, said, “The root issue here is the clear unconstitutionality of this bill.”

State Attorney General Larry Long, who helped draft parts of the bill, said he was neither an opponent nor a proponent of the bill. But he did point out problems with the bill. He said, for example, that a woman who conceives a child through incest and gives birth could be prosecuted for incest under existing law, but if the same woman, under the new law, elected to have an abortion she could not be prosecuted.

Sen. Gene Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls, the lone dissenting vote on the committee, told lawmakers that an abortion ban, which he favors, will return every year to the Legislature. “It’s not a waste of time,” he said.

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