Abortion-Rights Supporters In South Dakota Might Be "Conceding" Too Much "Moral Terrain," Opinion Piece Says

Although the South Dakota law (HB 1215) banning abortion in the state except to save a woman's life "simply goes too far," abortion-rights supporters "fighting to undo the abortion ban ... with the best of intentions," may also have "gone too far in conceding the moral terrain of the abortion debate," columnist Ruth Marcus writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. Submitting the state ban to voters instead of challenging the law in court "carries twin risks -- failure and success," Marcus writes, adding that if the law is rejected by voters, "what happens if and when antiabortion forces come back with a version more palatable to South Dakotans?" According to Marcus, the "flaw" inherent in the South Dakota strategy is that it "abandons" the "essential question of the abortion-rights debate: Who gets to decide?" Instead, "it silently concedes that this is a matter that can be determined by a legislative majority considering a more situational question: What excuse is good enough -- or, more precisely, what excuse does government deem good enough?," Marcus writes. She adds that when the argument is "framed in those terms, the right to choose as a bedrock guarantee starts to crumble." Marcus writes that she hopes abortion rights supporters will succeed in overturning the abortion ban, concluding, "But after that, they will need to figure out how to argue against the next law -- one that, under the terms they have tacitly accepted, doesn't 'go too far'" (Marcus, Washington Post, 10/11).

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