Yesterday South Dakota Rep. Phil Jensen told Greg Sargent that his bill did not legalize the killing of abortion providers, saying:
"It would if abortion was illegal," he told me. "This code only deals with illegal acts. Abortion is legal in this country. This has nothing to do with abortion."
This is the current language of the bill:
FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to expand the definition of justifiable homicide to provide for the protection of certain unborn children.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
Section 1. That § 22-16-34 be amended to read as follows:
2-16-34. 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 beingHomicide 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 idea that this exempts abortion providers because "abortion is legal" is a joke. The bill plainly lacks such an exception, and given, as Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out yesterday, that there's already a justifiable homicide law on the books in South Dakota that would apply to the situation Jensen describes, his response doesn't pass the laugh test.
Jensen seems to have figured that out, since he told Sargent today he was working with the state attorney general to modify the bill:
"There's no way in the world that I or any other representatives wish to see abortion doctors murdered," Jensen told me. "So we're looking at some language that will include that. We're looking at some language that would protect abortion providers."
Right. That's nothing but a tacit admission that the original bill actually could have been construed as legalizing the murder of abortion providers. Since there's already a law in South Dakota that would protect a woman under the circumstances Jensen describes, an amended proposal not legalizing the murder of abortion doctors would be redundant, unless your real goal is to inch the legal status of fetuses closer toward legal personhood, which is obviously the point.
What's really frightening is that this bill might have actually passed as is if Kate Sheppard hadn't pointed out to everyone how horrifying it was.
