Protecting Abortion Rights by ELLEN GOODMAN

This is the only

clinic in the state and this is the only day in the week when a woman can get an abortion in South Dakota. Today, they’ll be treated by

one of four doctors flown in from Minneapolis because it’s impossible to recruit locally. …

One clinic, one day, one

doctor. [mjh: for an entire state.] This is what it’s like in South Dakota right now under

Roe v. Wade. It’s also like this in North Dakota and Mississippi, and not very different in Arkansas or a dozen other states.

Anti-abortion lobbyists here boast that South Dakota is the legislative laboratory for testing and imposing state restrictions. …

It goes without saying that South Dakota is one of seven states with a “trigger law” ready to ban abortion if Roe is overturned.

But something else requires saying: it’s possible to add so many burdens onto the back of Roe that it collapses without ever being

overturned. …

But the question is not just whether [Alito would] overturn Roe. It’s whether he’d let it be

crushed. In 10 years, more than 400 state regulations have been added and more are coming. When do burdens that force

women to state-shop for their rights become “undue”?