In a pre-2000 election discussion on Chris Matthews' program Hardball, then-Governor and president-hopeful George W. Bush said that he felt abortion would always be legal. Bush went on to state that the nation wasn't prepared for a ban on abortion, and he felt, politically, that the abortion laws should remain the same. Bush made no bones about him being personally pro-life, but he insisted that his policies would reflect general opinion on the issue. What Bush needed, was to get him elected, and rabid pro-lifers do not get elected in a national general election.

Oh, how the times have changed. Following the state of South Dakota's signing of a full abortion ban into law, the Governor of South Dakota noted that the law is a "direct frontal assault [and] we'll never know unless someone tries."

The AP reported that "Rob Regier, executive director of the South Dakota Family Policy Council, stated: '[This] marks the beginning of a renewed effort to abolish abortion in our country."

I guess there are no unanswered questions regarding the current atmosphere among the nation's hard-right conservatives: they want abortion banned, and they are going for broke, now.

Labels: bush