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Sunday, February 26, 2006

Dobson's World: South Dakota edition

Tankwoman just posted about South Dakota's new abortion law, still waiting for the Republican governor's signature the last I read, which aims to bring back the good old days when fundamentalists preachers decided what women are allowed to do with their own bodies and, more specifically, their uteruses.

James Ridgeway With Michael Roston analyze the anti-abortionists' strategy in this piece: South Dakota's Genius Scheme to Outlaw Abortion: The trick? Privately fund a public initiative overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision Village Voice 02/24/06. They write:

A campaign to push the legislation through the U.S. court system up to the Supreme Court where South Dakotans can lead the charge to overturn Roe v. Wade, will cost over $1 million. South Dakota doesn't have that kind of money. So Rounds is studying ways of accepting into the state treasury private funds with which to wage the battle in the name of the South Dakota citizenry. In short,the well-heeled opponents of abortion are going to hire the public state government to fight their battle.

Do corporate Republicans really realize what they've done in making a tacit deal that puts state and federal governments not only at the service of corporate boards and wealthy individuals but flat-earth religious zealots, as well? I doubt it.

Ridgeway and Roston:

Setting up such an unusual campaign warchest may give the appearance of impropriety. "If the legislative body thinks this is the right thing to challenge the Constitution of the U.S., they need to be willing to pay for the process," argued Kate Looby, the South Dakota State Director for Planned Parenthood. By expecting outside donors to finance the legal challenge, she added, "There's some element of buying government, and I really object to that."

"Clearly the state can use taxpayer dollars," Sarah Stoesz of Planned Parenthood said. "I wouldn't be surprised if they could devise a scheme to use these donated funds. What it does underscore, there is a belief that the taxpayers don't want to pay for this, and consequently the only way to get something done that the taxpayers don't want to pay for and that the politicians don't want to pay for, the only way to do this is to find a private, anonymous person who will effectively purchase public policy that is not taxpayer or voter supported."

This is another good look at what theocracy American-style looks like. The state government of South Dakota puts its public attorneys at the service of a privately-funded religious battle to outlaw abortion as part of the Christian Right's "long war" to put women in what the fundis regard as their rightful place.

posted at 6:19:00 PM by Bruce Miller

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