PIERRE, S.D. — A South Dakota lawmaker says efforts to expand the state's definition of justifiable homicide could translate into a "license to kill" abortion providers.
Lawmakers are considering a bill that originally sought to allow a pregnant woman to use force to protect her unborn child without being prosecuted for homicide or assault. A committee later extended that protection to the woman's relatives.
Democratic Rep. Peggy Gibson says the new language could allow people to claim self-defense for killing doctors or others who try to provide a woman with an abortion.
Republican Rep. Phil Jensen says his bill has nothing to do with abortion. He says it merely seeks to make a law consistent with other South Dakota laws that allow murder or manslaughter charges for the death of an unborn child.
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