With all the trenchant comments by Melinda, Dana, Emily, et al., I'm surprised no one has touched on the truly medieval, alchemic nature of the South Dakota law; its mandate that men and women of 21st century medicine betray their Hippocratic oath by uttering a shibboleth equivalent to how many angels can dance on the head of a pin is beyond terrifying. Hey South Dakota legislature; why not pass a law that before a woman can obtain an abortion, she must be bled with leeches to remove her evil humors?

The only good that one hopes can come from this barbaric law is that it will focus the minds of abortion rights supporters on exposing John McCain's rigid, retrograde position on abortion rights. Remember, more than half the voters in this country still think he is pro-choice.

And by the way, Rachel Larimore, I call bullshit on your fatuous effort at a pseudo-principled objection to the South Dakota law and the Eighth Circuit's majority's astoundingly idiotic opinion. I for one am sick of hearing from and about you supposedly pro-choice Repubs who every election publicly aver that you're trying to moderate your party's mysoginistic platform, when in the end you always crawl hands and knees back to your reactionary nominee. Pardon the chauvinistic expression, but grow a pair, will ya?

Planned Parenthood's one "expert" simply said:

"that from the moment of conception, an embryo or fetus is a ‘whole, separate, unique, living human being’ . . . is not a scientific or medical fact, nor is there a scientific or medical consensus to that effect."

Nothing to back up his statement......so that is the fault of planned parenhood, their lawyers and their so called expert.

While in the states case several "experts" state:

Becoming a member of our species is conferred immediately upon conception. At the moment of conception a human being with 46 chromosomes comes into existence. These chromosomes, the

organization, the chromosomal pattern is specifically human. The RNA, the messenger protein, the proteins are distinctly human proteins. So this new human being is a member of our species, and humanity is not acquired sometime along the path, it occurs right at conception. Senate State Affairs Comm. Hearing at 25. Dr. Peeters-Ney also stated that an embryo or fetus is whole in the sense that "[a]ll the genetic information sufficient and necessary to mature, and the information that is needed for this human being’s entire life is present at the time of conception"; that it is "separate from the mother" because "[t]he genetic program is totally complete and this human being will mature according to his or her own program"; and that it is unique because it has "a totally unique genetic code."

I agree with you about the this law, but I should point out that, technically, performing an abortion is adirect violation of the Hippocratic Oath.

"And by the way, Rachel Larimore, I call bullshit on your fatuous effort at a pseudo-principled objection to the South Dakota law and the Eighth Circuit's majority's astoundingly idiotic opinion. I for one am sick of hearing from and about you supposedly pro-choice Repubs who every election publicly aver that you're trying to moderate your party's mysoginistic platform, when in the end you always crawl hands and knees back to your reactionary nominee. Pardon the chauvinistic expression, but grow a pair, will ya?"

McCain has always been pro-life, but rejects a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v Wade. (He also doesn't have a problem with stem cell research.) That's about as good as you're going to get. Most Republicans may be pro-choice, or at least not terribly anti-abortion, but they know which side the bread is buttered on. Pro-choice just isn't a strong issue with them. The only Republicans that really care about abortion are the pro-lifers, and they will walk out on the party if that position changes. No one wants to risk that, pure and simple.