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On November 7, this nation will have a national election. Along with the candidates for federal and local offices, there is a ballot measure in South Dakota that will ban abortion in most cases. Most of us here on FR will not be voting in South Dakota. But we can pray that the good citizens will cast the vote that will begin the end of the practice of infanticide. This is a prayer request. My wife and I will be praying on the seventh, and would this is something that we all need to pray for. My bride’s mom is...

Were you there on the phone Thursday night -- with hundreds of other pro-life leaders from around the country -- when history was made on the "Emergency South Dakota Briefing" call? Top national pro-life leaders joined me on the phone to share the latest news, discuss the urgent needs to help South Dakota protect its abortion ban, and detail the sweeping national implications of what is happening RIGHT NOW. We heard stirring calls to action from... >> JANET FOLGER, President of Faith2Action >> JUDIE BROWN, President of American Life League >> GIANNA JESSEN, abortion survivor >> FR. FRANK PAVONE, National...

South Dakota voters are leaning against the state's tough new ban on abortions, a poll released Monday shows. The statewide survey of 800 registered voters found 47 percent opposed the strict ban, while 39 percent favored it. The remaining 14 percent were undecided. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The Legislature voted overwhelmingly earlier this year to make abortion illegal in all cases — including rape and incest — unless the procedure was necessary to save the woman's life. It was to become law on July 1, but opponents gathered enough...

Voters will have the final say on South Dakota's tough new law that bans almost all abortions. Secretary of State Chris Nelson said Monday that the law's opponents had collected enough signatures to put a question on the November 7 ballot asking voters if the law should go into effect as planned or be dumped. The state's abortion law, among the strictest in the nation, bans the procedure in all cases except when necessary to save a woman's life, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Supporters hoped it would prompt a court challenge that would give the US Supreme...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Louisiana Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law a ban on most abortions, which would be triggered if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its 1973 ruling legalizing the procedure, a spokesman said on Saturday. The ban would apply to all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, except when the mother's life is threatened. It is similar to a South Dakota law that has become the latest focus of the abortion battle. The South Dakota law was enacted partly to invite a court challenge in the hope a more conservative Supreme Court would overturn its...

Blanco says she'll sign abortion bill Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Thursday that she'll sign a near-total ban on abortion - without exceptions for rape or incest victims - that is nearing final legislative passage. The Louisiana House and Senate have approved the measure by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, but it awaits one final approval from the Senate of House changes before it reaches Blanco's desk. It only would allow abortion in cases where the woman's life is in danger or when childbirth would permanently harm her health.

Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman doesn’t mind telling you that he sees the pro-life cause as a moral and political winner for his party. When I asked Mehlman (during an interview he did last week with HUMAN EVENTS) whether the pro-life issue was good for Republicans, his response was instantaneous. “Absolutely,” he said. As proof, he pointed to the 2002 Senate races in Missouri and Minnesota. In Missouri, pro-life Republican former Rep. Jim Talent defeated pro-abortion Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan. In Minnesota, pro-life Republican former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman defeated pro-abortion former Democratic Vice President Fritz Mondale. In both...

Does South Dakota's abortion ban contain a life of the mother exception? The intracasies of this bill, bad journalism and bad faith have caused the mainsteam and even some pro-life reporters to misrepresent this law as containing a "life of the mother" exception. In fact, the Women's Health and Human Protection Act contains no such exception. Instead, the bill adopts and institutes the principle of double effect...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) –The House voted strongly last week against an amendment that would allow U.S. military hospitals to perform abortions. This is the tenth year in a row the measure has been brought forward, since Congress banned abortions at federally funded facilities, including military hospitals, in 1996. The measure was defeated despite a stipulation that military members would have to use private funds to pay for abortions, reported the United Press International. Concerned Women for America supported the decision in a press release Friday, saying: “The Davis/Sanchez/Harman Amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization…is legislation that...

Baton Rouge, LA (LifeNews.com) -- The Louisiana state Senate has approved a measure that would ban virtually all abortions in the state. The measure only allows abortions in cases of rape or incest and senators rejected an amendment to add rape and incest exceptions to the measure, which now heads to the House. Sen. Ben Nevers, a Democrat who is the sponsor, said he opposed adding any exceptions to the measure, saying his heart goes out to victims of rape but an abortion compounds the problem. "Lord knows I would never want to hurt a mother, in any way. Lord...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A proposal to ban nearly all abortions in Louisiana moved forward on Wednesday, despite doubts from one lawmaker that it wasn't strict enough and doubts from another that it was too strict to get through the Legislature. Sen. Ben Nevers is sponsor of the bill that would allow abortions only to save the life of the mother. Doctors found guilty of performing abortions would face up to 10 years in prison and fines of $100,000. Nevers said he understood that some lawmakers wanted exceptions in the measure to allow abortions in cases of rape and incest....

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Plenty of places would wish to find themselves at the center of a national philosophical debate, but this is South Dakota. In the two months since the State Legislature set off a political and legal war by passing the most sweeping abortion ban in the country, residents have seemed awkward and uneasy in their spot at the leading edge of the country's clash over abortion. Some say that they are stunned to find South Dakota, the fifth least populous state, at the center of any such thing and that they are put off by the thought...

As the state of South Dakota prepares for a battle over a new law banning virtually all abortions, CNN conducted an interview with a woman who flies in from Minnesota to do abortions at the state's only abortion business, in Sioux Falls. No one in South Dakota will do abortions so Planned Parenthood is forced to bring abortion practitioners in from out of state. Miriam McCreary, a 70 year-old retired abortion practitioner is one of four the abortion business brings in every Saturday to perform more than a dozen abortions each week. "There is quite a need for somebody to...

Former U.S. Sen. George McGovern, in a speech last week at Chadron State College, was sharply critical of the war in Iraq, the Bush administration and the recent decision to ban nearly all abortions in his home state of South Dakota. The 83-year-old McGovern spoke and answered questions for about 90 minutes, then, for about 30 minutes, autographed copies of several of the 10 books he has written. Speaking on the abortion issue in South Dakota, McGovern said he has about the same disrespect for "a male-dominated Legislature that passes a law banning abortions as he does for a congress...

They could force the majority of people on both sides to find common ground. CLEVELAND - The South Dakota legislature, in an effort to ban abortion, could force the US Supreme Court to enshrine Roe v. Wade as the law of the land for all time. If this happens, such a decision would soon become the poster child for unintended consequences. The South Dakota law may very well require the Supreme Court to show that stare decisis (precedent) is more than just a rhetorical strategy used by conservative justices to win Senate approval. But since Roe v. Wade is, and...

Republicans in Washington are always willing to weigh in on the issues that are important to their conservative base - Iraq, immigration, taxes, federal spending, the Medicare drug plan, the Dubai ports deal, you name it. But, lately, hardly anybody in the GOP camp seems anxious to address the historic event that transpired this month out on the high plains and now threatens to roll eastward, to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is, of course, abortion. For the party of the elephant, the new South Dakota law - which prohibits the procedure for every woman in the state, unless she...

Pierre, SD (LifeNews.com) -- A South Dakota Indian tribe is throwing a monkey wrench into the state's plans to ban virtually all abortions in the state. Should the ban become law, one tribe says it will open up an abortion business on their tribal lands, which wouldn't be subjected to the abortion ban. Cecilia Fire Thunder, president of the Oglala Sioux tribe of South Dakota, says Sioux nation sovereignty means the new ban doesn't apply. As a result, she said she will lead an effort to build a Planned Parenthood abortion center at the Pine Ridge Reservation. “To me, it...

Editor, the Tribune: South Dakota’s abortion ban disgusts me. Even less aggressive efforts, such as those made in Missouri, fill me with revulsion and rage toward the society in which I live. Only an intellectual runt or a man with the compassion of a praying mantis and an ego bigger than the Queen Elizabeth 2 would support abortion bans that lack any relief for victims of rape or incest or women whose health is threatened. That is my opinion of every single supporter of the South Dakota ban, and I wish to declare it in no uncertain terms. A society...

PIERRE, S.D. - The superintendent of Mount Rushmore was surprised at first when people from all over the country started calling up to express their opinion about South Dakota's ban on nearly all abortions. Some callers said they were so upset that they would never visit Mount Rushmore, South Dakota's No. 1 tourist attraction. Others said they were so thrilled that they would make a point of coming to see the chiseled faces of four U.S. presidents in the Black Hills. On further reflection, Superintendent Gerard Baker decided that the messages from far and wide made sense, because Mount Rushmore...

The New Abolitionism Deacon Keith Fournier © Third Millennium, LLC Introduction It had been a long day. I was driving home to Chesapeake from Richmond, Virginia, “dog tired” as they say. My day had begun in Washington D.C., completing my week’s coursework at Catholic University. The morning class was followed by an important luncheon meeting. That was followed by travel to Richmond for a Latin class. That was followed by the privilege of serving as the Deacon and homilist at Mass at St. Benedict’s, my favorite parish in the Diocese of Richmond. I had at least two hours left to...