Next Stop, Supreme Court: What Happens If Anti-Choice Ballot Initiatives pass

[ccharles000]

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/10/03/next-stop-supreme-court-what-happens-if-antichoice-ballot-initiatives-in-south-dakota-and-colorado-pass

This fall, Californians will vote on a ballot initiative that would require teens to notify parents before seeking abortion care - a measure designed to erode the reproductive rights of minors - while voters in Colorado and South Dakota will vote on ballot initiatives designed to be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. Both the amendment that would chip away at rights and the amendments that would strip access to abortion altogether are projects of the anti-choice movement, but the two approaches reveal fissures within the anti-choice movement about the best strategy to roll back abortion rights.

South Dakota, a largely rural and socially conservative state, has already shown itself to be a state willing to offer a test case challenging Roe in the Supreme Court. The state legislature already passed an outright ban on abortion in 2006. The law was repealed by voter ballot initiative that same year, but supporters of the ban have gathered enough signatures to put the anti-abortion measure on the ballot this fall -- this time with an exception for the life and health of the mother, as well as for cases of rape and incest. Nevertheless, it is a sweeping ban that acts as a direct challenge to Roe if passed.

Colorado's proposed amendment is still more expansive than the South Dakota ban; it would seek to define as a person a fertilized egg, creating the potential for the banning of birth control and investigate miscarriages as murder or manslaughter if the measure passes.

The California ballot initiative, on the other hand, is much narrower than the outright challenges to Roe because the California Supreme Court has previously ruled that parental notification laws violate the state's constitution. Only a ballot initiative that amends the state constitution could limit abortion in California.

[VeraAgnes]

1. Mostly just us old Chrones are still fighting for the right to choose...

Supporters/Activist under 30 are few and far between anymore. Health Insurance does pay for Viagra but not birth control....so, we are already in the negative these days....It just might not br the battleground issue....maybe when it's gone, more awareness and support will surface...let the repugs have it their way and see the chaos return....