South Dakota GOP Back Bill Invites Murder of Abortion Providers

For the record, I am not an advocate of using abortion in lieu of responsible contraception and sexual activity. However, a bill currently pending in the South Dakota legislature has taken opposition to abortion to a frightening level and might well set the stage for the more untethered elements of the Christian Right to start literally murdering abortion providers and others. It's yet another example of the lengths that the GOP will go to prostitute itself to the most extreme and hate filled elements of religious extremists within the GOP party base. Moreover, it's a prime example of the fact that the "godly Christians" of the far right are anything but loving and/or Christian. Indeed, they look more like an American version of the Taliban willing to kill and destroy any and all who do not conform to their religious views. Here are highlights from Mother Jones on this development:
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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.
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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.
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"The bill in South Dakota is an invitation to murder abortion providers," says Vicki Saporta, the president of the National Abortion Federation, the professional association of abortion providers. Since 1993, eight doctors have been assassinated at the hands of anti-abortion extremists, and another 17 have been the victims of murder attempts. Some of the perpetrators of those crimes have tried to use the justifiable homicide defense at their trials.
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Sara Rosenbaum, a law professor at George Washington University who frequently testifies before Congress about abortion legislation, says the bill is legally dubious. "It takes my breath away," she says in an email to Mother Jones. "Constitutionally, a state cannot make it a crime to perform a constitutionally lawful act."
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The South Dakota legislature has twice tried to ban abortion outright, but voters rejected the ban at the polls in 2006 and 2008, by a 12-point margin both times. Conservative lawmakers have since been looking to limit access any other way possible.