Power

Mike Rounds, Radically Anti-Choice Former Governor, Wins South Dakota Senate Seat

In 2006, Rounds signed into law one of the most sweeping anti-choice laws in the country, which banned all abortions unless a pregnant woman’s life was in jeopardy.

In 2006, Rounds signed into law one of the most sweeping anti-choice laws in the country, which banned all abortions unless a pregnant woman’s life was in jeopardy. Rounds for Senate/Youtube

Republicans added to their new U.S. Senate majority Tuesday night in South Dakota, with stringently anti-choice Mike Rounds, replacing retiring Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson.

Rounds—who becomes one of Congress’s foremost opponents of abortion rights—won with just over 50 percent of the vote, beating challengers Rick Weiland, a Democrat, who took 29 percent, and Independent Larry Pressler with 17 percent.

Rounds, the governor of South Dakota from 2003 to 2011, signed into law in 2006 one of the most sweeping anti-choice laws in the country. The legislation banned all abortions unless a pregnant woman’s life was in jeopardy.

South Dakota citizens voted to repeal the law, which otherwise would have led to fierce legal battles since it directly challenged Roe v. Wade.

At the time, Rounds compared Roe to Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court case that upheld “separate but equal” racial discrimination in public facilities.

Rounds enjoyed a comfortable enough lead over Weiland and Pressler that the National Republican Senatorial Committee last week pulled advertising money it had budgeted for the state.

Weiland fought publicly with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee over negative advertising that he said made him look like a “dirty campaigner,” and opposed re-electing Harry Reid as Senate majority leader.