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The United States marks International Women's Day Wednesday deep in heated debate over abortion after a state launched a legal challenge that could overturn the 1973 landmark Supreme Court ruling that made it lawful.
On Monday the governor of South Dakota signed into law a bill that criminalizes abortion in every case except that of danger to the life of the mother.
The signature starts a legal process that is expected to turn up the heat on Roe versus Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that has made abortion a dominant issue on the national political landscape for decades.
"The reversal of a Supreme Court opinion is possible," Mike Rounds, the Republican governor of South Dakota, said in a statement Monday, comparing his state's fight against abortion to the fight against racial segregation in the 1950s.
The swords are now drawn in a war against abortion long sought by US conservative Christians and now seeming within reach with the recent appointment of two right-leaning judges to the Supreme Court bench.
The South Dakota law extends the ban on abortion to cases of rape and incest, and prohibits the sale of emergency contraceptive products.
Predictably it has drawn outrage from pro-abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the country's biggest family planning group, which vowed to use all legal means possible to stop the North Dakota law from taking effect.
The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, said the state's decision had aroused "shock, fear and outrage."
"Planned Parenthood will fight these attacks in courts, in the state houses, at the ballot boxes to ensure that women with their doctors and families continue to be able to make personal health care decisions without government interference," Richards said.
About 10 states, with Mississippi in the forefront, are considering approving a law similar to South Dakota's.
And if the 1973 Supreme Court decision is overturned, 15 other US states could start enforcing laws already on their books that make abortion a crime, as early as the first weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion opponents consider the moment particularly ripe to win their case. President George W. Bush, who opposes most abortions, recently has placed two conservatives on the Supreme Court bench and a third nomination may be in the offing due to a possible retirement.
The Supreme Court already has decided to examine the issue of chemically induced late-term abortions. More recently, the court has lifted a measure that forbids public demonstrations outside abortion clinics.
But the zeal of the South Dakota governor could prove counter-productive.
Some experts point out that the high court rarely reverses a major decision despite the nomination of new judges. Abortion foes may gain voices on the bench but without necessarily obtaining the majority needed to overturn Roe versus Wade.
Despite their conservative backgrounds, the two new judges -- John Roberts and Samuel Alito -- have indicated they would not undertake a reversal of historic decisions lightly.
Bush, a devout Christian, said last week that he found the South Dakota bill too extreme, stressing that he would reserve the right to abortion in three cases: rape, incest or a risk to the life of the mother.
ms/vs/jjc
Women-US-politics
AFP 081203 GMT 03 06
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