Editorial: Preventing Harm To A Fetus Is "Justifiable Homicide?"

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) FEB 15 | Women's reproductive rights are about to take another hit courtesy of the misogynistic right wing. A colleague for Mother Earth News here in Washington D. C. wrote that South Dakota State Representative, Phil Jensen, (R-Rapid City) has written an onerous bill that passed out of a committee and is now headed for a full vote on the floor of the state's House. What's worse is that it is likely to pass.

Kate Sheppard reported:

A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus—a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state's GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Phil Jensen, a committed foe of abortion rights, alters the state's legal definition of justifiable homicide by adding language stating that a homicide is permissible if committed by a person "while resisting an attempt to harm" that person's unborn child or the unborn child of that person's spouse, partner, parent, or child. If the bill passes, it could in theory allow a woman's father, mother, son, daughter, or husband to kill anyone who tried to provide that woman an abortion—even if she wanted one.

In fairness, according to a distinguished Professor of Health Law and Policy and Chair of the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University, Sara Rosenbaum, the bill is constitutionally questionable:

"It takes my breath away," she says in an email to Mother Jones. "Constitutionally, a state cannot make it a crime to perform a constitutionally lawful act." 

The professor is a respected expert on women's reproductive health rights as well as other health rights issues-frequently testifying before Congress about abortion legislation.
Sheppard also notes:

South Dakota already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, and one of the lowest abortion rates. Since 1994, there have been no providers in the state. Planned Parenthood flies a doctor in from out-of-state once a week to see patients at a Sioux Falls clinic. Women from the more remote parts of the large, rural state drive up to six hours to reach this lone clinic. And under state law women are then required to receive counseling and wait 24 hours before undergoing the procedure.

[ Full Article ]

Jensen, told journalist Sheppard that he disagrees with this interpretation of the bill.

"This simply is to bring consistency to South Dakota statute as it relates to justifiable homicide," said Jensen in an interview, repeating an argument he made in the committee hearing on the bill last week. "If you look at the code, these codes are dealing with illegal acts. Now, abortion is a legal act. So this has got nothing to do with abortion."

Wait-What? In a word, Bullshit! Who the hell is he kidding? What is so tiresome is the stone age Neanderthal like justifications that misogynistic wingnuts like this clown use to justify repressing women. Who the hell gave them the right to "lord" over the fairer sex? That classic bronze age book of mythology they call the holy bible?

Yes people, I am really angry about this.

This is the same crap the Reich-wing pulls on the LGBTQ community on equality rights issues such as same-sex marriage. But this is worse folks, way worse. They claim to be pro life? Yeah, right, so save a fetus to live in most likely dire poverty with no health care benefits, crappy education, dubious employment prospects, and above all most likely be denied a loving parental unit all while making permissible legally to kill a Doctor?

In another word? Sickening! These alleged Christian Conservatives need to admit they're simply misogynist and be done with it. How on earth is any of this supposed to be for 'freedom'? Conservatives talk all the time about freedom and rights, and they spend more time than anyone else trying to take those things away from other people.

If people seriously want to stop abortion, the answer isn't to make abortion illegal, but rather, make it obsolete. I think that is something everybody can agree on. Both side can work together to make abortion obsolete through radical measures like "education" and "access to birth control". (FYI: Abstinence hasn't worked since the first single celled organism split in two...)

Consider this aspect, with the morning after pill and RU486, and other pharmaceutics in the pipeline, societies are really on the cusp of making procedural abortion almost a thing of the past, where pregnancy prevention and drug induced abortion will be done in the privacy of one's own home without anyone on the outside even knowing. Of course human reproductive education is the ultimate best solution, but with the Reich-wing religious extremists blocking the best sex education in many regions, chemcial/pharmaceutical control is the next best option for women. Women need to stand up and take reproductive rights out of the hands of all men, PERIOD!

All of this crap stems from the roots of religious fundamentalism. These Christofascists believe that men are the decision makers and all women are answerable, and thus subserviant to the male. Women are second class citizens in home, the family and under the law. Why do you think that in the late 1970's and early 80's, it was the organised churches more than any other group who were opposed the equal rights amendment Fundamentalism is all about men's power and authority, especially over women. Sound familiar? Go look up Islamic Sharia laws & practises.

Not long ago I received this from a reader:

It is amazing that so-called Christian people can come up with such hate in their hearts!

When Jesus came to earth he rejected the religious conservatives of his day because they had so changes the Word of God and used it to their earthly benefit. If Jesus came today I believe he would cry to see how the so-called christian conservatives have again misused the Word of God. Where is the conservative's call to repentance and faith and redemption? All I hear is hate!

I'm at the point that I am seriously wondering when the Reich-wing is going to push the cultural war into a conflict that might be bloody? There are breaking points-it's human nature folks.

There needs to be a movement from within the religions themselves to put an end to this. It's insanity at the very least. The Christofascists need to be held accountable for the harm they are inflicting on their fellow human beings with examples such as this crap. I have no problem with religion, it's the way some people practice it that I have a problem with.

Who knows, maybe the next thing after they make it legal to kill Doctors and hell even gay & lesbian folks, the rule will be don't masturbate- you're killing millions of unborn babies. After all; if these ultracrepidarian bozos get their way you might just end up getting shot for that.
Representative Jensen is also co-sponsor of a bill making South Dakota among the states that are trying to pass bans on sharia law. (Note that the bill would merely ban judges from applying a "foreign religious or moral code.") That bill reads:

"No such court may apply international law, the law of any foreign nation, or any foreign religious or moral code with the force of law in the adjudication of any case under its jurisdiction."

I see, so there's a separation of mosque and state, but not a separation of church and state, because Islam is for foreigners? Hmm, so I guess since Christianity and more specifically Catholicism are foreign religions. That bill is a cleverly designed plot to make the Church of the Latter Day Saints the only official religion in those states under the guise of fear-mongering against Muslims?
ALL of this should give any American citizen pause and make them reflect on just exactly who they have elected to represent them in these governmental bodies.
Women's Rights? Gay Rights? Religious Rights? Not if these clowns can help it.

Christofascism (the name being a portmanteau of Christianity and Fascism) is a concept in Christian theology first mentioned by Dorothee Sölle, a Christian theologian and writer, in her book Beyond Mere Obedience: Reflections on a Christian Ethic for the Future in 1970. To Sölle, Christofascism was caused by the embracing of authoritarian theology by the Christian church. According to Sölle, it is an arrogant, totalitarian, imperialistic attitude, characteristic of the church in Germany under Nazism, that she believed to be alive and well in the theological scene of the late 20th and turn of the 21st century