The South Dakota House on Friday voted 50-18 to approve an amended version of a bill (HB 1215) that would ban all abortions in the state except to save a pregnant woman's life and sent the bill to Gov. Mike Rounds (R), who has indicated support for the measure, the AP/San Diego Union-Tribune reports (Brokaw, AP/San Diego Union-Tribune, 2/24). While the bill would not punish a woman who underwent an abortion, it would make it a felony to perform one. Physicians convicted of performing the procedure would face a minimum of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Physicians who save the life of a woman by performing an abortion would not be charged with a crime as long as they make "reasonable medical efforts" to "preserve both the life of the mother and the life of her unborn child." Under changes made by the state Senate Affairs Committee, the bill states that "a pregnant mother and her unborn child each possess a natural and inalienable right to life" and due process under the South Dakota Constitution. The state Senate on Wednesday approved the measure.

Governor Rounds' Comments
Rounds issued a technical veto of a similar measure (HB 1191) in 2004 because he said it would have erased the state's current abortion restrictions while it faced a court challenge (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/23). Rounds during a news conference on Friday said he and his aides will study the bill to decide whether the language in the current legislation fixes the problem of the 2004 measure (Davey, New York Times, 2/25). "If the bill is correctly written, then I will seriously consider signing the bill," he said on Saturday, adding, "It would be a direct frontal assault on Roe v. Wade" -- the 1973 Supreme Court decision that effectively outlawed state abortion bans (Conlon, Reuters, 2/27). Rounds has 15 days to decide whether to sign the measure (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/23). If he does, the bill is scheduled to take effect on July 1 (New York Times, 2/25).

Media Coverage
Several broadcast programs reported on the South Dakota legislation:

• ABCNews' "World News Tonight": The segment includes comments from Kate Looby, South Dakota state director of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota; Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights; Rounds; Geoffrey Stone, professor at University of Chicago Law School; and Charmaine Yoest, vice president of external relations for the Family Research Council (Pinto/Stephanopoulos, "World News Tonight," ABCNews, 2/24).
  


• NPR's "Day to Day": The segment includes comments from Will Saletan, a national correspondent for Slate and the author of "Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War" (Chadwick, "Day to Day," NPR, 2/24). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.
  


• NPR's "Morning Edition": The segment includes comments from Eve Gartner, senior staff attorney with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; John Green, professor of political science at the University of Akron; and Leslee Unruh, founder and president of the Alpha Center and Abstinence Clearinghouse (Rovner, "Morning Edition," NPR, 2/23). A transcript of the segment is available online. The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.