Sensing the conservative zeitgeist that is creeping through America, South Dakota is taking the initiative to lead women’s health back into the deprivation of decades past.  South Dakota began its crusade early: in 1998, the state declared that a pharmacist may refuse to dispense emergency contraception to a woman, even if she carries a prescription for it: “No pharmacist may be required to dispense medication if there is reason to believe that the medication would be used to (1) cause an abortion; or (2) destroy an unborn child.”  Unsurprisingly, South Dakota has already banned all medical treatments related to or drawn from human cloning, in addition to banning human embryonic stem cell research.  

On March 6, 2006, South Dakota governor Mike Rounds signed a document banning almost all abortions in the state, making no exception for pregnancies that are results of incest or rape. The new law will be mired in the court systems and will be unlikely to take effect unless it is upheld by the Supreme Court. Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito, both conservative Justices and Bush appointees, have the potential to swing the Supreme Court into conservatism and to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973. The law is slated to be put into action on July 1st and carries a five-year prison sentence for any doctor who performs an illegal abortion.

Other states are following suit. Alan Nunnelee, a Mississippi state senator, declared, “Roe is the worst kind of law…I believe we can do better.”  He is moving to ban abortion in the state.  

Mimi Hanaoka