By By Julia Hahn, Columnist

A new law under consideration in South Dakota will broaden the horizon for ‘justifiable homicide.’ This new law will include protecting a fetus from any kind of harm. But some people fear this would include the murder of doctors who offer abortions.  

This legislation, which is backed by the Republican party, has already passed out of committee with a 9-3 party line vote and is scheduled to reach the House of Representatives very soon.

The bill itself changes the state’s definition of a legal homicide by adding that homicide is allowed when defending an unborn child of the person, or the unborn child of that person’s spouse, parent etc.

So, in theory, any of those people could kill any person trying to provide that woman with an abortion, regardless of the fact of whether or not she wanted one.

However, the law states that homicide would only be justified in cases of self-defense.

For example, if an ex-boyfriend found out his ex-girlfriend was pregnant and attempted to get rid of the child then she, or her father, or brother, or mother would be completely in their rights to defend the unborn child and it would be forgivable to kill the ex-boyfriend in the process.

This new law strongly reinforces the stance of pro-life held by the Republican Party as well as some religious groups. A big reason for their support is the Christian idea of conception and when a human life begins to exist.

Some Christians believe that as soon as the sperm comes in contact with the egg that there is instantly a human life present, so when an abortion is performed at any time the murder of a human life is taking place. To them this law would be a form of defense for those beings that can’t defend themselves.

This law makes sense to these people because, to them, they are protecting that life by any means necessary.

Nobody would dare question a person if they killed someone who attempted to kill an infant family member. To some people that is what this law is allowing them to do.

Critics are afraid that this law will get out of hand and that people will feel that it is within their legal rights to kill an abortion doctor without any kind of inciting incident.

However, I believe the purpose behind this law to be filled with only good intentions: the intention of defending the lives of people who can’t do it themselves.

The government of South Dakota would not seriously allow a person to walk into a doctor’s office and maliciously kill a doctor who was asked to perform a service.

I do think a person would be entirely within their rights to protect an unborn child in an unsafe situation, no matter how early on the mother is in the pregnancy.

Remember, a life is created when that sperm touches that egg. That child should have the right to life that every other person has.