The South Dakota bill whose legal language would have legalized the killing of abortion providers has been shelved by the legislature:
The House speaker, Val Rausch, said that the legislation had been shelved, pending a decision on whether to allow a vote, amend the language or drop it entirely. A spokesman for Gov. Dennis Daugaard said, “Clearly the bill as it’s currently written is a very bad idea.”
Mark Thompson gives Rep. Phil Jensen the benefit of the doubt as to whether or not he actually intended the bill to do that, but it's not like there isn't a history of people trying to use "justifiable homicide" as a legal defense in the murder of abortion providers.
It also wasn't just pro-choice activists concerned about the language of the bill:
Troy Newman, leader of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group, said he was “shocked” when he read the bill, which he worried could encourage violence. “The pro-life movement, by definition, is in favor of protecting human life from the moment of conception to natural death, and we reject all forms of violence,” he said.
Operation Rescue has the awkward task of making that argument sound sincere when their former founder ran around implicitly justifying the murder of Dr. George Tiller by a man with ties to Operation Rescue. Again, it's a positive sign that no major political movement in the U.S. wants to be seen as legitimizing violence -- even if some get pretty close to the line. Kate Sheppard also deserves a lot of credit for reporting on this in the first place.
UPDATE: Thompson comments:Obviously I disagree with Thompson on whether its impact would have been purely symbolic, but just wanted to post this for clarity.Thank you for the link, but I just want to make clear that my position is that, regardless of Jensen's intent (though I do tend to give him the benefit of the doubt here), the bill actually would not have legalized the killing of abortion providers.Its practical effect would have been nil or close to nil, though it clearly was intended to have symbolic value.
