Saturday, February 19, 2011

Wildcard Weekend: U.S. HB 1171

Whenever I watch movies like V for Vendetta or read books like 1984, I always scoff to myself, quietly, inside my head, wondering how things could ever get so bad. I like to believe they could not possibly get that bad; people would notice and Do Something. But I understand now, after reading almost all day and periodically staring melodramatically into the distance; All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. For we must be vigilant, watchful, and diligent; the steady oozing of malevolence is cunning, and never sleeps. Our rights can be frittered away like tiny grains of sand until we only notice when we try to build our castles in the sky, only to have our solid footing dissolve out from under us.

Okay, no more wine for you.
No, seriously, Dear Reader, I am stone cold sober! More than that, I am APPALLED. We would recognize evil, wouldn't we? We would hold it up to the light to watch it sizzle away like the demon it is...right? If there were ever a law allowing any random individual with a gun and a grudge to kill people, the outcry would be monstrous. Nothing gives the random public the right to kill anyone for any reason (Protection of domain and person arguments aside), right?

I was discussing my blog with a coworker when he suggested I should write about the South Dakota law that would give people the right to kill any doctor who performed an abortion on a woman relation. I am embarrassed to admit I snorted. A rare, incredible moment passed where I dismissed something as mere alarm-ism. It felt so good, I may have even rolled my eyes. But no more. My only dish today was crow.

Check this out: (copy-pasta'ed verbatim from the South Dakota official website)

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
    Section 1. That § 22-16-34 be amended to read as follows:
    22-16-34. Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person while resisting any attempt to murder such person, or to harm the unborn child of such person in a manner and to a degree likely to result in the death of the unborn child, or to commit any felony upon him or her, or upon or in any dwelling house in which such person is.
    Section 2. That § 22-16-35 be amended to read as follows:
    22-16-35. 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, if there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony, or to do some great personal injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished. 


That is not even sneaky. You do not even have to read very far into that to see where they are going. Like that time my dog puked in the living room, and the other dog wanted to eat it, so she just slowly sauntered on over, really tame-like, "Do you honestly think you are being clever?"
We may have to rub their noses in this; otherwise how are they going to learn it is wrong?
The bill has been defeated, and if they are smart, they will not try that again, but it just goes to show that not everything is ponies and rainbows, and we must fight to protect what we value. Never forget; CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
Anyway, that is more than enough horror for one day;




 Hey, hey, hey! You do not get away that fast! You said you were anti-abortion!
Yes, but this is SO WRONG! It is so dreadful and annoying to be lumped in with anti-abortion nut-jobs; I can not even call myself "pro-life" because of all the horrible connotations. I am not anti-choice. I love choices. But so many people choose abortion for the wrong reasons, and that needs to be addressed too! So you know what I am? I am Pro-Health. Woman's health, fetal health, mental health, doctor's health. If it is healthy - I support it. There we go.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

But, is abortion legal in Dakota? If it is the this law should not have allowed people to attack abortionists willy-nilly, because they aren't committing a crime. Although, if the state is looking at bringing in laws like the one quoted in the post, I sincerely doubt abortion would be legal. At least it was shot down.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, that previous one should be signed C

Anonymous said...

It was made illegal (The Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act) in 2006, but repealed later that year based on a referendum. So far as I can tell it's still legal, but probably only in extreme cases (rape, incest, health risk to the mother). That being said, U.S. HB 1171 has apparently been tabled as of Feb 16/11, but the fact that it exists at *all* is terrifying and disturbing to me. The referendum itself was 56%-44% in favor of repeal, so let's hope that the 56% stays loud.

-K

Anonymous said...

In South Dakota abortion is legal and not just in extreme cases. The only prohibition seems to be against partial-birth abortions. There are allowances for abortion clinics for ones performed before 12 weeks and it's legal even after that.
The state is obviously not in favour of abortion, as there are many statements of support for the mother-fetus relationship and attempts to ensure that the mother gets all the information she could need to make an informed decision.

Just because some nutcase thought that they could use this proposed law to kill an abortionist, doesn't mean that it would work. What the pro-choice side is worried about, I think, is that it's a back door to defining a fetus as a person. Once you do that, it's pretty hard to support laws that allow abortions.
lol, mapa