Even though it almost certainly will be challenged in court as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, Gov. Dennis Daugaard says he likely will sign the bill the South Dakota Legislature has passed requiring a woman to wait 72 hours and to receive counseling before she can have an abortion in the state.
If the legislation lands in court, Daugaard and others have suggested there are private donors willing to put up the money to defend it.
Which seems to beg the question: Why stop there?
If there are people in this nation so bent on ending abortion they'll pay us to do their bidding, what other civil liberties could we attack to make some dough?
How much could an assault on freedom of religion fetch, do you suppose? Certainly, there are people – including some in this state – who think there is but one true religion, and as luck would have it, that religion happens to be theirs. They've never been particularly fond of that First Amendment hooey: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
In their estimation, a law is exactly what we need.
So why not give them one? If we can get a million dollars or more from people who want to force women who – without intending – find themselves pregnant to have to listen to some stranger tell them why abortion is a big decision that carries lifelong ramifications, as if they didn't know that already and weren't already conflicted enough, think how much loot we could get from all the zealots who sneer at religious freedom?
Or how about due process? It seems we could make a small fortune passing a law that puts the kibosh on that practice.
I bet if we called George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, they would be delighted to contribute, given their penchant for snatching people both guilty and innocent off the street, spiriting them to far-flung places and subjecting them to all sorts of nasty treatment without the courtesy of counsel or other protections this country affords those accused of crimes, no matter how horrendous and infuriating.
I get the feeling that like Bush and Cheney, those who are convinced we should round up everyone who looks a little Hispanic and ask them to show some identification don't give a damn about due process, either. If we would pass a law that scrapped all that rot about coerced testimony and the rights to a speedy and public trial, I suspect we could count on them to chip in, too.
There is no limit to the deals we could do.
I imagine Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has had his fill by now of school teachers and state workers crowding the hallways, sleeping on the floors, occupying the bathrooms and just in general making a nuisance of themselves in his state Capitol building. I wonder how much he and his union-busting buddies would pay us to pass a law that forbids people from assembling peaceably.
Pick whichever part of the Constitution you want: freedom of the press; the abolition of slavery; the right to own a gun; the collection of federal income taxes. Somewhere out there is someone or some ones who would like nothing more than to put the lid on a certain liberty, and so for an enterprising state willing to be the front man for their efforts, it seems there is money to be made.
Heaven knows we could use the cash. We're in the red to the tune of $127 million. Maybe this could be the answer to our budget problems.
Or maybe – instead – this piece of abortion legislation the governor says he is inclined to sign should be no one else's business but ours.
A million dollars – or more – is not pocket change for South Dakota
If the majority of us want to pass a law requiring a woman in this state who has landed in this most terrible of terrible spots to wait 72 hours and to visit a counselor before she can have an abortion, living in a democracy permits that. But let's not allow ourselves to be the means to someone else's political or ethical ends.
If the governor signs this legislation and its constitutionality is challenged, we – and we alone – should pay that freight.
Otherwise, it says we can be bought if the price is right.