How little Choice is ideal?

I like to distinguish between the wacky conservatism we see on talking head shows and the conservatives I know personally. I don't know any conservatives who have taken Ann Coulter's advice and tried to kill me with a baseball bat for being a Democrat. My pals in the GOP didn't hunt down Muslims over 9/11, or take Jerry Falwell seriously and blame me because I'm a Feminist. I know a lot of people who listen to them and might claim they agree with them. But it's obviously taken tongue-in-cheek because right wing death squads are pretty rare in the US of A.

This is heartening to me. As delusional and belligerent conservative pundits and politicians keep trying to go further and further, the great middle ground of American citizens can be stirred to rein them in. And that middle ground includes most conservatives. It might not happen as quickly as I'd like, but it does happen.

An unusually big dope slap is being handed to the politcal class of South Dakota. This is no hotbed of lefty politics: Bush won 60% of the votes there in 2004. Feeling the wind on their back, the legislature there passed a law this year banning all abortions except to save the life of the mother.

There are no exceptions for rape or incest. There aren't even exceptions for serious health damage short of death. If this law is enforced, you can't get an abortion to stop a molar pregnancy, in which the fetus is too deformed to ever become viable. You'll have to continue until labor. The South Dakota law is based on the moral theory that taking the Pill is murder because it prevents one cell zygotes from implanting in the uterus. The law is outrageous so it will get challenged in court. They hope to take this to the Supreme Court and overturn Roe v. Wade.

But the politicians were surprised when a challenge came from another source: the people of South Dakota. A grass roots movement rose up to overturn South Dakota's law with a referendum. 16,728 signatures are needed to get on the November ballot. An all volunteer force of 1,200 citizens gathered 37,846. Even abortion opponents are signing the petition:

Even in the most conservative corners of this conservative state, both Republicans and Democrats -- including some voters who say they oppose abortion -- are eagerly signing the petition. In two weeks, volunteers have collected a third of the signatures they need to get a November referendum on the ban.

Some voters dismiss the abortion-rights activists as out of touch with South Dakotan values. "People here have a sense of morals and ethics," said Darcy Patterson, 40. "I don't want to change the law."

But many others say their legislators went too far when they voted last month to prohibit all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, unless the woman's life is at stake.

Spotting three teenagers with clipboards as he walked up to the Sturgis post office, Jack Hoel, 74, broke into a grin.

"I can't wait to sign," he said. "I was going to go out looking for this petition."

Hoel said he is a staunch Republican in a county that twice backed President Bush with nearly 75 percent of the vote. "You have to be, in South Dakota, or you get extradited," he joked.

But Hoel disliked the thought of politicians interfering in a family's most intimate decisions. "It's too personal to be legislated," he said.

I don't know South Dakota. But it's become pretty obvious that the people aren't as crazy as their elected leaders. Get out the vote, South Dakota, and remember to vote for sanity.