Coming Soon: America's New Civil War

Droves of women in South Dakota were seen packing their bags on Friday and heading for the borders in a display of defiance unseen since the infamous Underground Railroad movement in which slaves fled from their masters to seek their deserved freedom.

No, that didn't actually happen - yet.

The Republican government of South Dakota has approved a ban on abortions effective July 1, 2006. The only exception is in cases where there is a medical threat to the mother's life.

Raped? Victim of incest? You will be forced by the Republicans to have your child. Only totalitarian barbarians would refuse women in such positions to continue their pregnancies under the force of law.

In response, Planned Parenthood released the following statement:

"This ban is an attack on women's fundamental right of privacy and their ability to make the most intimate and personal choice about when and whether to have a child. The U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed time and again the constitutional right to make the private choice to have an abortion. South Dakota is entering dangerous territory with this ban.

"Across the country, state politicians are creating a gauntlet of anti-choice laws and regulations to make it more difficult for women to get the best and safest reproductive health care services. South Dakota's ban is the most sweeping abortion ban passed by any state in more than a decade. Planned Parenthood will go to court to ensure women, with their doctors and families, continue to be able to make personal health care decisions — not politicians."

Now that the US Supreme Court is firmly stacked with right-wing justices, I'm sure South Dakotan lawmakers feel secure that their new law will survive. Although Chief Justice Roberts stated that he believes Roe v Wade is settled law (which newly coronated Justice Alito refused to even utter during his confirmation hearings), the existence of stare decisis is not a guarantee that a law will not or cannot be changed.

Those who feared a gathering threat to the state of a woman's right to choose during the confirmation hearings of these two new justices have seen their concerns justifed. There is a very real possibility that women's rights will be set back to the dark ages of back-alley abortions with coat hangers - especially in South Dakota and perhaps countrywide - if the anti-abortion lobbyists have their way.

It's time for those all over the US who support a woman's right to live in privacy and to make her own medical decisions with her doctor to speak up now - louder than ever.

We've already seen what a theologically-driven federal government, led by their new prophet George W Bush, will attempt to get away with. From the push for the acceptance of "intelligent design/creationism" in schools across the country to a complete rejection of scientific facts, there is nothing stopping them now.

Choose your country, my American friends: BushWorld or The United States of America.