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A Loophole in the War Against Women

by Tryan Hartill

From Rapid City Journal:

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecelia Fire Thunder says a clinic on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation could provide abortions if South Dakota’s new abortion ban goes into effect.
“We’re working on it,” Fire Thunder said in a telephone interview Friday. “This is a free-choice issue. If I were in that situation, I’d want somewhere to go where I’d be taken care of.”
The new South Dakota law bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother — with no exceptions for rape or incest.
Fire Thunder said the state law would not apply to the reservation. “We’re a sovereign nation,” she said.

The Tribe does face one small hurdle, the doctors on the reservations might be punished by the State, but there maybe another loophole for this as well:

University of South Dakota law professor Frank Pommersheim, an expert in Indian law, agreed that Fire Thunder’s proposal was “potentially workable” — especially if doctors were Indians and if the clinic were on Indian trust land.
Pommersheim said licensing could pose a problem. Physicians licensed by the state of South Dakota could face penalties, but he also said tribes might set up their own licensing procedures.

Through reservations it would appear that abortions will never be illegal throughout a whole State, unless of course the Supreme Court somehow rules that the Constitution says so, which is a remote possibility if evengelicals continue to be the driving force at the polls.

Mar 26, 05:15 pm | Tryan Hartill
Tags: OpEd