State says 'Roe' an error, asks Supremes to fix

 

In a newly adopted resolution that is strikingly similar to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, lawmakers in South Dakota have set out the circumstances, listed their grievances, provided their justifications and called on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Not surprisingly, House Concurrent Resolution 1004 already has gotten the attention of the biggest player in the nation’s abortion industry, Planned Parenthood, which described it as “scary” and “dangerous.”

But South Dakota state Rep. Roger Hunt, one of the dozens of representatives and senators who sponsored the resolution, explained that lawmakers in the Plains state famous for the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, its Indian heritage, Tom Daschle and a family-oriented heritage believe strongly that the Supreme Court’s decision was wrong and that as they have done several hundred times already, the justices need to correct it.

The resolution isn’t precedent-setting, he noted.

But, he said, when there are any cases “in which Roe vs. Wade might be referenced, the court would be reminded of its errors, both factually and legally, in its decision.”

There also have been inquiries from a number of others states. And with enough action on the part of states, the high court soon would recognize that, at least, Roe should no longer be cited in support of other decisions, he said.

South Dakota, Hunt explained, is probably the only state ever to investigate the facts of the abortion industry with a formal legislative committee.

Lawmakers took sworn statements from more than 2,000 women regarding the psychological harms from abortion, releasing a 71-page legislative report. It includes documentation of cases of men who played Russian roulette with women reluctant to get an abortion.

Read just what the lawmakers believe, in their House Concurrent Resolution 1004.

As a result, the state already has adopted some of the most stringent abortion regulations in the nation and is working on more. Its decisions routinely are challenged by Planned Parenthood, which has the only abortion mill operating in the state. It has to fly in abortionists because there are none at all in the entire state.

South Dakota repeatedly has won in the courts.

Hunt told WND there was a team assembled to write the 21-page resolution, and the support from lawmakers was overwhelming.

It’s a statement, he said, from the people to the high court justices that “we’re going to hold you accountable.”

The resolution begins: “A concurrent resolution, addressed to the United States Supreme Court setting forth certain facts and expressly enumerating the grievances of the people of the state of South Dakota, through their elected representatives, with that court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade … and its progeny and calling for that court to now protect the intrinsic, natural, fundamental rights of the children of our state and nation and the intrinsic, natural, fundamental rights of their pregnant mothers in their relationship with their children, and the mothers’ health by reconsidering and overturning the court’s decision in Roe.”

It notes the U.S. declared that all human beings are endowed by their Creator with rights and that the high court has maintained that it is the final arbiter of the meaning of the Constitution.

The resolution notes the Supreme Court has embarrassed the United States with rulings such as Dred Scott, which declared that blacks are property, and it has corrected previous rulings 233 times.

“The fact that the United States Supreme Court has held that certain conduct is constitutional or protected by the Constitution, does not mean, in and of itself, that such a decision is correct,” the resolution explains.

Roe is such a “tragic case left on the record of the court.”

“In short, the errors of the court in Roe v. Wade and its progeny have stood, and still stand, in the way of our ability to discharge our duties to the people of our state.”

Even the plaintiffs in the original cases disputed the court’s conclusions, the lawmakers noted.

“Our legislature has held no less than 20 public hearings on various abortion related matters and legislation. In 2005, we created, by statute, the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion, which after many months of study and public hearings, submitted to our legislature a 71-page report. Virtually every statute we have passed to protect the interests of pregnant mothers has been attacked in court by an abortion clinic and its physicians claiming that Roe v. Wade prohibits our rational and carefully thought out legislation,” it states.

The argument isn’t complicated, the lawmakers explained.

“The right and duty to preserve life cannot co-exist with a right or duty to destroy it,” they wrote. “It is the law, as it represents the collective interests of the individuals for whom it exists, that must choose which set of interests it must protect, and long ago our law was required to choose life over death, the mother’s beautiful interest in her child’s life over its destruction, the protection of innocent children over the misguided philosophies and trends in social thought which come and go.”

Life has value, the lawmakers said, but it is under attack with Roe.

“It is now established beyond dispute that the unborn child is a whole, separate, unique, living human being throughout gestation from fertilization to full gestation,” they wrote. “It is now widely accepted that the physician, who has a pregnant mother as his patient, has two separate patients, the mother and her unborn child, and the physician owes a professional and legal duty to both patients.”

They continued: “It is simply impossible for the Constitution to protect the mother’s fundamental right to her relationship with her child, and at the same time protect the act of the doctor who terminates that relationship by terminating the life of the mother’s child.”

The original Roe decision also was flawed, without significant discovery, only a few briefs and no opportunity for much of the evidence to be explored, they wrote, listing “no factual record, no discovery, no evidence.”

“We issue this solemn resolution in confidence with the knowledge that the court’s history of being open to correct its errors will serve the court and our people well once more, and that this resolution and the call of the people of South Dakota and their elected representatives will be well received as one issued in good faith, made with respect for the court, and made with humility.”

They concluded: “The errors of Roe are too clear, the harm that decision has caused the women in our state and throughout the nation too tragic, the deaths of our children too numerous, and the inherently unjust nature of the conduct too plain for our Supreme Court to fail to act to overturn that decisions.”

State says 'Roe' an error, asks Supremes to fix
Bob Unruh
Thu, 12 Feb 2015 03:12:56 GMT