Hot midterm race developments

Posted: Monday, September 18, 2006 3:49 PM by Mark Murray

From NBC's Mark Murray
Without a doubt, the most closely watched ballot measure on Election Day will be the referendum over South Dakota's abortion law, which bans all abortions except those needed to save the mother's life -- a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade at a time when the Supreme Court has two new conservative justices. And the South Dakota group that's trying to get the law repealed, Campaign for Healthy Families, has launched its first TV ad. "South Dakotans agree: Honor and protect human life. Reduce the number of abortions," the ad goes. "But should a woman who's the victim of rape or incest be left with no option? What about the mother whose health would be seriously threatened? ... It just goes too far."

Meanwhile, in the New Jersey Senate race that has made Democrats increasingly worried about whether they can hold onto the seat, the campaigns for Bob Menendez (D) and Tom Kean Jr. (R) are sparring over whose surrogate is worse. Earlier today, Menendez and Joe Wilson -- of the CIA leak fame -- held a press conference assailing a fundraiser that White House adviser Karl Rove is holding for Kean. "It is no wonder that Rove is here to campaign for Tom Kean Jr.," Menendez said. "Karl Rove demands absolute allegiance to George Bush, and Tom Kean Jr. is more than happy to give it." However, the Kean camp issued a press release blasting Wilson's appearance with Menendez. "Menendez welcomes discredited and disgraced Joe Wilson to New Jersey," the release said.

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Comments

PLEASE resume you rformer "printer-friendly" format.

I am among the many readers who prints First Read to take to breakfast, the gym, etc. I hve no interest in four extra pages, of photos, junk at the end, etc. -- or in tiny type in one item, regular typeface in the next. I'd like a succinct, narrative-format printout such as those I've been used to for years from you.

Thanks for listening.

Dave Wright, Santa Monica, CA (Sent Tuesday, September 19, 2006 1:17 AM)

A woman will still be able to get an abortion because of the "VIRGIN CHRISTIAN SODOMY" exception according to this article from the South Dakota Rapid City Journal that was sent to me:

"I asked a local obstetrician: If a woman has been raped and impregnated and is in poor health, he cannot, under the new law, recommend an abortion in the first trimester, when it could be done safely. Instead, he told me, he must wait until death is imminent, when the risk to both the woman and the fetus is at its highest.

Even if the wording of the law is hopeless, Gov. Rounds might reasonably have looked at "legislative intent." Sen. Bill Napoli was eager to weigh in during an interview on "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer." He was asked to describe a situation in which an abortion would be allowed to protect the life of a pregnant woman.

My thoughts turned to problems like chronic heart disease or complications from diabetes. But Sen. Napoli, having given the matter serious consideration for several months, went in another direction entirely. "A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life."

Despite the fact that the law does not make an exception for rape or incest, Sen. Napoli has carved out his own "virgin Christian sodomy" exception.

I can imagine the hospital operating room now - an obstetrician, a pediatrician, a surgeon, a few nurses, the hospital lawyer, a priest, in deference to Sen. Napoli, a psychologist. And oh, lest we forget ... the woman.

"Shall we abort?"

"Well, doctor, she was brutally raped and sodomized, but do we know whether she was a Christian?"

"Was she a virgin? Was she saving herself?"

Of course, Sen. Napoli's comments are bigoted and absurd, but they speak to the intent of many legislators to hoist the banner of a religious crusade rather than actually making law to reduce the need for abortions in South Dakota."

Joe Schnell, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Sent Tuesday, September 19, 2006 8:09 AM)

Hey morons in North Dakota:

BIRTH CONTROL and SEX EDUCATION REDUCES ABORTIONS!

Too bad they are also unacceptable.

john (Sent Tuesday, September 19, 2006 2:39 PM)

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