Lifeline Fall 2008 (Vol. XVII, Nº 2)

Pro-Aborts Cry Foul as South Dakota Becomes Abortion-Free

Michael Marcus

Pro-aborts are howling in rage in response to an informed consent law that has effectively put South Dakota’s only abortion mill out of operation.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled on June 27th that the law, which has been working its way through the courts since 2005, was constitutional and could go into effect.

Abortion specialists who are regularly flown into Planned Parenthood’s Sioux Falls Clinic have finally discovered something they just can’t bring themselves to do: comply with the law.

So for now, and until Planned Parenthood finds some law-abiding abortionists, no abortions are transpiring in South Dakota. The pro-life law requires abortionists to inform every mother that she has “an existing relationship” with her baby and that “her existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated.”

Abortionists are also required to say that “abortion increases the risk of suicide ideation and suicide.”

Most important, abortionists are required to inform every mother that her baby is “a whole, separate, unique living human being.” The required information must be given no earlier than two hours before the abortion, and the mother must certify in writing that she understands what she’s been told.

Pro-aborts complain that the law prescribes a script to abortion practitioners and therefore interferes with their free speech rights. “The law is one more terrible, terrible barrier,” declared Sarah Stoesz, President of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota in Minneapolis, and involves “unprecedented interference in the doctor-patient relationship.”

But Troy Newman of Operation Rescue applauded the effects of the South Dakota law and credited New Jersey attorney Harold Cassidy and local pro-life leaders Dr. Alan and Leslee Unruh with the success.

“It didn’t take the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and it didn’t take a new president or a new Supreme Court,” said Newman. “It took the courageous determination of pro-life heroes—who saw an opportunity to save lives and pressed on until their dream became victory.”

This article was originally published in Lifeline Vol. XVII, Nº 2, Fall 2008.
Lifeline is a publication of Life Legal Defense Foundation, Napa, Calif.