South Dakota Legislators Encourage Murder

South Dakota Republican-backed House Bill 1171, just out of Committee and set for vote in GOP-led South Dakota House of Representatives soon, redefines justifiable homicide:

Section 1. That § 22-16-34 be amended to read as follows:

Section 1:

22-16-34. Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person while resisting any attempt to murder such person, or to harm the unborn child of such person in a manner and to a degree likely to result in the death of the unborn child, or to commit any felony upon him or her, or upon or in any dwelling house in which such person is.

Section 2. That § 22-16-35 be amended to read as follows:

22-16-35. Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person in the lawful defense of such person, or of his or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or the unborn child of any such enumerated person, if there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony, or to do some great personal injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished.

The italicized text indicates how the previous text has been amended.

While the law, as amended, encompasses homicide in the defense of a woman who wants to keep her unborn child, it also encompasses, and excuses, murder of an abortion doctor about to perform his services. It's a hunting license for abortion doctors, and the sponsors of the Bill know it:

The South Dakota legislature has twice tried to ban abortion outright, but voters rejected the ban at the polls in 2006 and 2008, by a 12-point margin both times. Conservative lawmakers have since been looking to limit access any other way possible. "They seem to be taking an end run around that," says state Sen. Angie Buhl, a Democrat. "They recognize that people don't want a ban, so they are trying to seek a de facto ban by making it essentially impossible to access abortion services."

They also know there is precedent for the murder of abortion doctors; the murders of George Tiller, Bernard Slepian, and other abortion providers were by those against a woman's right to choose her own fate.

This is Republicanism in action: if you don't like what the voters tell you--what democracy tells you--it's OK to resort to violence. Only let someone else do the dirty work for you.