The Daily Background

Many people were saying when Alito was nominated, that he was going to ‘tip the balance’ of the court so to speak. And hindsight may prove them right. When Alito was confirmed on January 31st, the race began, and the floodgates opened. Ultra-conservatives in several states are readying abortion bans, because now they believe they can get away with it– with two of the President’s justices on the bench.

The obvious example is South Dakota, a state in which an anti-women’s rights measure will go into effect on June 1st– which bans almost all abortions, including in cases where women are the victims of rape or incest (a seperate amendment to the bill proposed an exception for rape, however it was defeated by a signifigant majority). The governor of S.D. refused to comment personally on the measure which he signed. The President refused to comment on it as well. So have several other Republicans. Later I estimated that only a quarter of South Dakotans approved of the bill, but who knows if that’s right or not. The only polling data I had to work with was a couple years old.

Recently, there are rumors that Tennessee is planning to follow South Dakota’s lead (and by “lead” I mean lead into the past– taking women’s rights decades backward), and may pass an abortion ban as well.

Meanwhile, there is a new proposed bill in Louisiana which would ban all abortions. And there’s rumblings in Mississippi too.

Don’t believe for a moment that this would have happened if Alito had not been confirmed. Less than a month after he was sworn in, the South Dakota ban was brought forth.

You can read my thoughts on the general issue of abortion here.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog