Right now the ban on abortions in South Dakota is looking like it won’t pass.  It’s 10 percentage points behind with 74% of precincts winning.

It it fails to pass I don’t think it’s necessarily a failure for the pro-life movement.  One of the arguments against this measure was that it does not contain exceptions for abortions in instances of rape or incest.  Now, personally, I don’t see how a principled opponent to abortion can say that they oppose the practice yet support it in instances where the pregnancy is caused by rape or incest.  If the child in the womb is a life that is worth protecting when not created by rape or incest, then it is a life worth protecting when caused by rape or incest as well.

Yet such a principled position doesn’t lend itself well to radio spots, especially when the opposition is doing everything it can to emotionalize the issue.

Had this measure in SD had exceptions for rape and incest then I think it would probably have passed.

But there’s a larger point to be made about the abortion issue in this country.  Tonight the citizens of South Dakota spoke on the issue of abortion and chose the way they’d prefer to deal with it.  Why shouldn’t other states in the union have that right?  Many people think that Roe vs. Wade made abortions legal.  That’s not strictly correct.  Roe vs. Wade ruled that it was unconstitutional for states to pass laws making abortions illegal.  Basically, Roe denied the states the ability to decide the abortion issue for themselves.

I think all states should have that ability back.  Roe shouldn’t be overturned so that all abortions will be made illegal.  Roe should be overturned so that the people in every state of this union have the right to do what South Dakota did tonight.