It still begins "We the People" not "We the State of..." there is nothing more fundamental than the right to chose your way in life.

I've held my three children in my arms at their birth, they all came in with an inhalation of breath. I've held my father at his death, he left in peace with a long exhalation. This is the beginning and ending of life. This is why it is stated in the Bible that the Lord blew his breath into Adam and gave him life.

Keep the Federal government out of my life, my nedical background, and the daily choices I make.

I believe that there are different views on everything in life and I accept that. I do condone forcing your religion or moral beliefs on other people. Plain and simple.

This is ridiculous. I'm a Christian and that's not the reason I disagree with abortion. I disagree becuase it's just plain disgusting. Completely immoral. Women need to start being more responsible. Everyone knows the risks they're taking but nobody wants to deal with the consequences. It's horrifying how many women have been brainwashed into thinking this is ok to do. IT'S NOT! Only because of rape or health problems should an abortion be performed. (The Christian in me actually disagrees with this, but knows the public needs it.) And the only reason that abortion should be kept legal for everyone is beucase it's scary to think of what people will do to get rid of these babies if it's not. It's a sick world and I hope women wake up and open their eyes and stop using abortion as birth control.

Pro-life advocates who appose all abortions “except where the mother’s life is in danger” don’t take into consideration the possibility of birth-defects. What about women who are taking medications that are known to cause birth defects? Should they be forced to have children with multiple, debilitating, and life threatening birth defects? Who has the right to sentence a husband and wife with the emotional and financial burden of such a child? Pro-life advocates are quick to say there a many people out there who want to adopt children, but there are not many who would want to adopt a child with multiple birth defects. Who will pay for the ever increasing medical costs for such a child? In this era of ever increasing cuts in social services, many social service agencies wouldn’t have the funding to deal with such a child either.

Our government is divided into three branches and also has a system of checks and balances. The executive, judicial, and legislative. The constitutionality of any piece of legislation should not be determined solely by the judicial branch i.e. the Supreme Court. The constitution and the bill of rights is in essence legislation so under the current power of the Supreme Court any right of the bill of rights could essentially be struck down by the opinion of the Supreme Court. An example would be the second amendment of the right to own and bear arms. More restrictions have been placed on the right more than any other not just be legislation but by the opinion of the Supreme Court. Public Policy should mostly be determined by the state and US congress as elected by their constituency in a representative democracy. No one is dying or being aborted because women have the right to vote, work etc. If the judicial branch has the sovereignty to strike down any law based on opinion then the legislative bodies of our states and US congress are powerless. The Supreme Court that has upheld rulings that provide for the proliferation of violent and pornographic material on the basis of the first amendment of free speech. The right of expression and free speech stops when it begins to hurt other people. There are volumes of documented research showing the mental, emotional and physical damage caused by pornography and super violent media. So the question that must be answered is to what degree do we extend the rights of women to abort there unborn children. Most Polls show that the majority of Americans gasp when they realize how many millions ( more than 43 million) of babies have been aborted it exceeds any other number of human lives taken by war, genocide, or any other cause in history. There are other modernized nations that strictly regulate abortion and it works. There is no financial problem or any other glaring social issue as many predict would happen if abortion was more strictly regulated in the United States.

The Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade determined that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees women the right to have an abortion. The relevant language in the amendment states that "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." To infer a constitutional right to kill an unborn child from this language is beyond preposterous. Roe v. Wade was a monstrous abuse of judicial authority because in this decision, the Supreme Court essentially invented a constitutional right where no such right existed. If the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment intended the due process clause to guarantee a right to an abortion, then why was abortion illegal in every state in the country for 100 years following the adoption of the Amendment? Roe v. Wade should be overturned not only because it is an immoral decision, but it is also has absolutely no basis in our Constitution. States like South Dakota have every legal right to pass laws protecting the most innocent and defenseless persons in our midst - our unborn children.

This is neither a clear-cut nor black and white issue and only simple-minded people can categorically conclude that abortion is murder. As far as the idiotic idea of forcing women to have babies just because 'you play, you pay' only succeeds in hurting innocent babies. I find it extremely egregious and hypocritical for these ignorant pro-life people to get all up in arms about “the lives of the unborn” yet, once those babies are born, their so-called advocates are nowhere to be found while the babies are left to fend for themselves as unwanted or unloved. How about this for a concept: YOU choose for YOURSELF and I'LL choose for MYSELF! Mind your business and focus your outrage and efforts onto something that actually affects your life. If you haven’t a clue where to start, you might try getting angry and in the face of government for illegal spying based on fear and lies; THAT’S something that affects us all.

You can bet that if the wife or daughter of one of these male SD legislators was raped, they'd be sending their loved one out of state for a safe, legal abortion.

But the left in this country has to realize that we need to be willing to have the public debate on abortion that Roe v. Wade foreclosed. This is a debate that has been brewing for more than thirty years and which is largely responsible for the bedrock 35-38% support that will stay with George Bush no matter how many things he and his administration completely screw up.

The left needs to quit relying on the courts to protect a right that would have more legitimacy had it been established legislatively (as it was in Western Europe where there is NO significant anti-abortion movement). The pro-lifers learned from Terri Schiavo that Americans want to keep government hands off our bodies. They'll learn the same thing if the left is willing to debate them and stop acting like Roe v. Wade is the be-all and end-all.

And once we have that debate, we can then turn to to more important question of how to eliminate the need for abortion by preventing unwanted pregancies -- a goal that people on the left and right ought to be able to find SOME common ground on.

It's time for Roe to be overturned--or at least weakened...We are the only country in the world that permits abortion-on-demand for--in effect--ANY reason at ANY point during pregnancy...It's not a religious issue--it's a scientific issue: child abuse is illegal and "fetal abuse" should also be banned...I know there are circumstances where one feels there must be the opportunity to have an abortion; My suggested compromise: 72-hour waiting period, options-counseling, and the payment of a FINE--to convey the signigicance/serious nature of the act--it should not be an easy, willy-nilly thing to do....You have to travel out-of-state to get an abortion? Well, that's okay because this is a serious action to take and paying a fine of $1,000 to the State Treasury (on top of the cost of the abortion) sends a message that abortion is NOT a good thing....

Bottom line, it's all about money. I wonder how these
scripture quoting Prolifers would appreciate footing the
bill for the upbringing of thousands & thousands of "unwanted children." It would seem we have enough of the population on welfare right now. Do they really want to add more? How about these Prolifers showing their sincerity by adopting and providing homes for these children. Not bloody likely!
If you don't believe in abortion, don't have one. It's that simple. But please don't attempt to force your antiquated religious beliefs on everyone else!
If "god" were truly judged on "his" merits, what with all the catastrophies of late, he would be voted out of his supreme position by any clear thinking board of directors.
Leave god out of the equation; women have the right to
make their own choices. Let's keep it that way!

Actually, I find one little thing funny about some of the arguments posted here.
Why is it a "life" when the woman chooses to have sex and gets pregnant, but it is NOT a "life" when the woman was raped or a victim of incest? So, is the fetus a "life" or not? You can't have both. I mean, honestly, saying that abortion is only okay when it wasn't the woman's FAULT that she got pregnant makes it sound like you're more interested in punishing the WOMAN with 18+ years of servitude and tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt than protecting the fetus' "life".
In case you're wondering, by definition, life occurs between birth and death. To say that a wad of tissue (even if it could, eventually, become a human) with no awareness of it's own existence has more rights than a fully-grown woman is sad indeed.
My second question is this: for those who cry about the "murder" of a "child" every 23 seconds, or the "murder" of millions of "children" each year, what do you propose to do if all of those supposed millions of children were BORN? There aren't enough families in America willing to take in anywhere NEAR that many kids. So what do you propose we do with them?
I find it ironic that these are the same people, often times, that insist on teaching abstinence-only sex education with NO education about contraceptives. Please understand, people are NOT GOING TO STOP HAVING SEX! No matter how much you wish they would, you can't just stop millions of adults from having sex because you want them to. So how about offering a REAL solution to the problem? If you're so against abortion, offer to adopt the baby of a woman who is considering the abortion... AND offer to pay for her to have the kid (average birth costs approx. $12K if there are no complications, so make sure you have some cash in reserve!) But, unless you're willing to adopt EVERY unwanted child, do not support this legislation, or the overturning of Roe V. Wade. If you're against abortion, that's fine; protest all you want, try to convince as many people as you want to bring their pregnancies to term, adopt as many kids as you want, but DO NOT force your choices on other people.

Personally I don't care one way or the other about Roe v. Wade. However, I find it interesting that the Constitution has been used to promulgate many positions which the original framers did not consider. I lean more to a stricter interpretation of the document and let legislatures pass the laws not the Supreme Court. For those who oppose abortion, why don't they get the Medical Insurance Companies declare abortion as "elective surgery" and then the pro-abortion groups can fight for "better healthcare." As the saying goes, "A plague on both their houses." We have more important htings to worry about in this country!

Wouldn't it be nice if good daycare facilities, a decisive parental leave law, and quality health care were widely available to all potential mothers, whatver their income level? It might make all of this almost irrelvant and would truly show this nation's committment to family values.

All I can say to those who constantly bring up God's law in their rants about ending abortion: Thank God we don't live in a country where YOUR God's book is the law. We are free from having to adhere to your sad devotion to your acient religion (nice quote, eh?).

The good news is that in this country you are free to believe what you want. I say, go right ahead and refuse to have an abortion. Wear a T-shirt outlining your feelings on the matter (I love freedom of expression as well). Just don't try to get me to agree, k? Great.

The sciences can demonstrate with detailed empirical data, that the womb is the temporary habitation of a developing human being, with embryonic and extraembryonic supports systems designed specifically for the preservation of a human life. How many of the board readers know the scientific structure of the amnion and chorion, the inner and outer fetal membranes, and how, as the unborn child begins to experience the epiphany of its powers, it casts off the thin layer of the amnion to form the amnichorionic sac? A new person, in a state of somatic organizational and developmental repose, with an integrating and organizational principle distinct from and separate from the body of the mother. And there is a body of evidence supporting the claim that the integrating principle is a human person in the unfolding of its innate human potential, gradually experiencing, expressing and revealing the blossoming of its distinctly human powers.

Rape and incest are crimes, and those who commit them should be punished. But why do many of the people on this message board say a death sentence should be imposed on the culprit's child? Any child in the womb, regardless of how life began, is the most innocent of human beings. It is simply unthinkable to condemn this innocent person to death. Yes, mothers who became pregnant through rape need a lot of care and attention. Killing the child doesn't solve their problem. It only makes it worse. The baby may be "that monster's child," but he is also the mother's child.

Many on this message board have stated that you can't legislate morality. If this means the law is not sufficient to make everyone morally responsible, that is certainly true. We need more than laws to make people good. Their hearts and minds need to be converted. Laws do have both a teaching and restraining function, however, that actually keep people within the bounds of moral behavior, even if unwillingly. As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, the law can't make my brother love me, but it can keep him from lynching me. Just as surely as the failure to recognize that Black slavery involved the oppression, exploitation and violence done to kidnapped Africans was the root of the constitutional contradiction in Dred Scott, so the failure to recognize that abortion involves the violent extermination of unborn life is the root of Roe v. Wade.

i believe in god, but my god is kind & compassionate (unlike many of yours). he would understand my need for an abortion if i were the victim of rape or incest. to force the innocent victim of a serious crime to carry a rapist's child to term is cruel & unusual punishment. and allowing the rapist 50% of the rights to that child is sheer lunacy. why is the law more concerned with protecting the rights of the rapists & sexual predators that it's victims? (mother & unborn child included). according to the people wanting to pass this law, they must think rapists make a wonderful parents. i would like to ask them what kind of world they're bringing a child like that into? life is hard enough even when you're wanted & conceived out of love. if abortion is banned, millions of children are going to end up homeless, abandoned & abused, with their rapist fathers in jail. and the women who were forced to have those children after being victims of rape or incest will have their own lives ruined beyond repair too. it should be a crime to force a woman to carry a rapist's child to term & then make her share parental rights with a monster. if men were the ones being directly affected by banning abortion in this way, it would never happen in a million years. and that's the sad, sad truth about the state of this country. woman are becoming 2nd class citizens once again. welcome to the 21st century.

I am pleased with the majority of the comments seen on this issue. I applaud the American people for believing that there is no excuse for depriving a woman of her right to choose. We are in a war where we say that our message is one of freedom, but yet, here we are at home participating in wiretapping and now this. If we are to preach freedom and then oppress women, we have lost our witness to the world abroad.

The term “murder” is being bandied about here as a substitute for “abortion”. Of course, the purpose is to equate abortion with something we believe to be heinous and unlawful. Remember murder means the unlawful killing of another human. The particular act of killing must be made unlawful in order for it to be murder. Abortion is legal, so it ain’t murder.

In fact, everyday, we condone the killing of other people without it being called “murder”. Our government has sanctioned our military to go into another country and “murder” people…opposition fighters and innocent people alike are being “murdered”. We can “murder” another person when defending our own property or life. We “murder” people who have done heinous crimes and are sentenced to death. We even “murder” people inadvertently when we ignore poverty, mental illness, or other social ills that allow people to starve to death. Face it, unless you eliminate all of these, “murder”, or the killing of another person, will always occur in society, either with the direct blessing of the people or through its abject ignorance. Killing does not always equate to murder.

Is abortion killing? That in and of itself can certainly be debated. Suppose that it is. Suppose we can even make it true murder by making it illegal as SD wants. So, anyone who kills an unborn child is a murderer. Now we are on a very slippery slope. What about the woman who smokes or drinks during pregnancy and harms the fetus? If the fetus dies, is she a murderer? Do we send her to death row because she murdered? If the child is born and lives, of course, she isn’t. But what if the child is deformed. Certainly then, she abused the fetus. Child abuse is illegal, so should she be sent to prison for abusing her unborn child? How about the local convenience store clerk who sold her the smokes and drink? Aren’t they merely providing the means like an abortion doctor? Off to prison they go, with a possible death sentence too. What about the woman who simply doesn’t eat properly, i.e. doesn’t get enough folic acid or other important nutrients? Again child is born deformed, does she got to prison for abuse? To death row if the fetus died? What about fetuses that abort prematurely on their own? How do we know the mother isn’t at fault because of her actions? Surely she didn’t do everything possible to save the fetus, so she must be a murderer. Again, off to prison and death row for being a murderer!

Fetuses abort for many different reasons. Fetuses aren’t free-standing individuals. They require the internal connection to the mother for their survival. It is why we, as a society, don’t confer to them any individual rights, or any rights for that matter. Otherwise, every mother will have to enter some sort of government-sanctioned birthing program to be monitored at every moment to make sure she didn’t do anything to harm the fetus.

The other idea tossed so lightly about as if it were true is that a woman chooses abortion as a form of birth control. Ever talk to a woman who is contemplating, or has had, an abortion? You think she just said to herself, “Oh, no problems, I’ll have unprotected sex because I can always have an abortion.” Puhlease. It is the most difficult “choice” a woman can make and it is rarely, if ever, taken lightly. Abortion is a last, and often desperate, resort. Figure out why the mother is so desperate, solve that problem, and the abortion may be averted. Of course, as so many have suggested, that requires first that we address many social ills. Why aren’t the legislatures and right-wing bible-thumpers working overtime to pass those laws or work within society to take care of the neglected, down-trodded, or struggling?

Look, if you don’t like abortion, don’t have one. Don’t want your child to have one, love them and teach them the responsibilities that go hand-in-hand with having sex. Why do you care if some stranger has an abortion? Do you care that millions of children are starving, have no health care, or are abused in this country? Sure you do. But are you as vociferous about the protection of those that are born as you are for those that aren’t? Probably not. Ask yourself why? Then go and fight for them. I’d bet if the same effort was placed with making life better for those that are already born, we’d have a heck of a lot less abortions.

First of all, I'd like to thank all the Christians who have enough respect for civil liberties to be Pro- Choice. It takes a lot of courage to stand before your religious peers and stand up for what is fair and right.

Next, medical science tells us a fetus cannot live outside the womb until 23 weeks gestation. This is when I BELIEVE life begins.

However, this debate isn't about when life begins ... it is about freedom and rights. I am a free woman. I have the right to have sex. I even have the right to have unprotected sex. I have the right to have a baby when I am 18 years old with little education. I have the right to wait to have a baby until I am 28, am married, and have a well paying job. I also have the right to never have a baby. It's my decision when TO... so why should't it be my decision when NOT TO?

I do not believe in abortions as birth control, but I do want birth control cheaper, more easily accessable, and more people educated on the matter. I do not believe in partial birth abortions because, as I've said, after 23 weeks gestation a fetus can survive outside the womb. And most importantly, I do not believe in taking away someone's right because they don't have the same beliefs as i do.

Pro Life Activists, I ask you this: How would you like it if the governement told you when you could have children and if you got pregnant before that time, they made you have an abortion? It would be horrible! They would be making your decisions for you and forcing you to go against the beliefs you so strongly hold dear. Now think about it like this: that scenero is what you are trying to do to me -- and countless women like me -- take away MY right to live MY life by MY rules and MY beliefs.

If you don't believe in abortion don't have one, don't give money to organizations that support it, and by all means pray for each "child" that's parents loved it, and themselves, enough to understand that they aren't ready for a baby or the awesome responsibility that entales. Don't make me carry a child for 9 months, only to release that child into a system where they may never be adopted and if they are, have high chances of abuse and neglect.

Maybe the energy used on trampling others rights would be better spent on encouraging and improving the adoption system.

Please have respect for my beliefs and my rights... you wouldn't want yours taken away either.

Here’s and angle I’d like you all to ponder. We all have rights. Do we have the right to drive down the freeway at 150mph? No. So while we have freedoms, there are all limits to our freedoms and with tax time coming, none of us can evoke a right to choose not to pay taxes either. So why do we have the right to choose whether to have an abortion or not? We are the land of the free but we are not a democracy either. We are a republic. That is a representative democracy. We elect people to represent our interests and create laws that we all live by. If enough people truly feel abortion is a right. Then they must vote. They must vote in number significant enough to make it clear to our representatives that this is an issue they should leave alone. But with any representative form of government, the squeakiest wheel (or the one with the most cash) will get the grease. In the US it has become the vocal minorities that have taken control while the majority of us who are centrists are letting it happen. We are all busy working, raising families and enjoying life to get worked up over these things. This must end.

If a baby was born in an operating room and the mother changed her mind at that moment. I don’t think any of us would say you could kill it at that point. We’d all be appalled. Can we terminate it just before it sees daylight? At what point do we all feel comfortable with this? The right to life say from the moment of conception. I’m not sure that is right either. Where do you draw the line. Like speeding, if you go 5mph over you are probably OK but at what point is it obvious that we are doing wrong? Perhaps we should just issue tickets and use the money to support adoption, contraception, and education. There’s a twist.

Personally, I think the right belongs to the woman as both the Church and Governments tend to screw things up when they get too involved. If those of you who feel it is murder, you can rest easy knowing the murders will someday face their judgement with God. It is not your job to play the role for Him.

And it starts... the obvious religious based changes in our society. How I long for the time where everyone was not scared of everything and people allowed others (at least in the United States) to make CHANGES for the better, not rolling back the hands of time because it does not meet some people's superstitious, oh I mean religious, beliefs. What a joke America is becoming at the expense of many ignorant and scared people.

I am a proud to live in South Dakota. I am also proud that my state is taking on this difficult issue. We have had amazing discoveries in medicine since Roe v Wade, one of which is the proof that life begins when the sperm and egg combine. So who protects that life? If you are a parent of tweens and teens this is a great time to talk with them about the consequenes of Sex. Young males especially need to respect women and need to know that there are responsibilites after the act of sex. Lets not just discuss how much hate we have for the people we do not agree with. Teach your kids to be respectful and responsible.

Why do nine people in black robes get to decide the abortion issue? Leave the abortion issue to the states! If some drunken co-ed in South Dakota has a one night stand and needs an on demand abortion all she would need to do is drive to left wing Minnesota where abortion would probably become legal!!! I could care less about the women who use abortion as birth control. Move to a blue state or hop into a car and get your so called minor procedure done. I would not consider myself a very religious person but it's obvious religion has been woven into the fabric of this country since day one!!! Get over it left wingers!!! Quit trying to castrate this country and it's citizens!!!

I was born to a teenage mother in the 50's. Had abortion been lawful at that time I might not be here to write this opinion. I was a lucky one, I was adopted by a couple who loved me as if I had been concieved by them.
I say this, stop the circumstances under which a person has to make this decision. Make birth control and sex-ed classes available to all.
To the Pro-Life people, put your money where your mouth is. ADOPT ! Once all unwanted children have a loving, nurturing home then there will be a reason to do away with this medical procedure. Unwanted children are the unlucky ones.
If a woman uses abortion for birth control then that person should give up their reproductive rights, maybe not the first time but after a second procedure they should be sterilized. If they feel the need to have children when they are more mature to raise a family they can adopt.

Clear reason/truth tells us there can be no right to aborting a fetus. The practice of a mother killing her baby girl is murder, whether the girl is born or in her mother's body, because she is human and alive. Reason tells us the government in Nazi Germany did not have the right to murder Jews and other burdensome peoples' lives. No goverment or parent has the right to murder burdensome children. Roe must go!