South Dakota Abortion Measure on Track To Appear on November Ballot Despite Resistance From State Republicans

The group gathering signatures for a ballot measure that could enshrine abortion rights in the South Dakota state constitution is saying that it has gathered the required number of signatures ahead of a deadline to submit the petition next week.Dakotans for Health announced Wednesday that it has collected more than 55,000 signatures in support of the ballot measure, significantly more than the 35,000 required.“The Freedom Amendment will restore women’s personal freedom and overturn South Dakota’s blanket abortion ban by writing into our constitution the protections contained in the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision,” a co-founder of the group, Rick Weiland, said at an event at Sioux Falls.“We pay to advertise to the nation that ‘freedom works here,’” Mr. Weiland said, referencing a set of ads featuring the state’s governor. “Freedom is not working here when government forces a woman who has been raped to give birth.”The proposed amendment to the state constitution would prohibit the state from limiting abortion rights in the first trimester but allow the state to “regulate the pregnant woman’s abortion decision” in the second trimester, though only in “ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.”The state would be allowed to ban abortion in the third trimester, though the amendment carves out exceptions for the life and health of the mother.The specific text of the amendment has divided the movement to restore reproductive rights in the state, with the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood choosing not to weigh in on the measure, citing concerns with the specific language of the bill.When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, a 2005 trigger law in South Dakota immediately went into effect banning all abortions in the state except when the procedure is deemed necessary to prevent the mother from dying, an exception that often proves difficult to act on for doctors.South Dakota is one of eight states where advocates are seeking to get an abortion rights measure on the ballot this fall. Three other states, New York, Maryland, and Florida, are already guaranteed to have abortion-related measures on the ballots.As advocates in South Dakota have pushed to get the measure on the ballot, the lawmakers and governor of the state have maneuvered to undermine their efforts.Governor Noem signed a bill earlier this year that would allow those who signed petitions for ballot measures to retract their signatures.Ms. Noem also signed a bill that appropriated $100,000 for the creation of a video “and other materials” that describe the state’s abortion law, as well as its policy on “medical care for a pregnant woman experiencing life-threatening or health-threatening medical conditions.”The video, which is expected to be released more than two years after South Dakota’s abortion law went into effect, is supposed to clarify when exactly an abortion is allowed to save the life of the mother. Earlier this month, Ms. Noem said she would oppose exceptions for rape and incest in her state, telling CNN, “I just don’t believe a tragedy should perpetuate another tragedy.”“I believe in taking care of mothers that are in a crisis situation and that we should be walking alongside them, giving them all the information and the best information they can make before they have to be put in a situation where an abortion is the only option that they have,” Ms. Noem said. In other states, public officials have spelled out conditions for exceptions on an ad hoc basis. In Oklahoma last year, the state attorney general clarified that a woman does not have to be “septic, bleeding profusely, or otherwise close to death” to obtain a legal abortion, but doctors can still be prosecuted if there is any evidence they may have performed an abortion when the woman’s life was not in danger.While the effort to make it more difficult to pass ballot measures is now squarely focused on abortion rights, South Dakota legislators previously overturned an anti-corruption law passed by a ballot measure that would have created new penalties for campaign finance and lobbying violations, as well as a new independent ethics commission.On his way to submit the petition at the state capitol, Mr. Weiland tells the Sun that he doesn’t consider the efforts by state lawmakers a “serious threat to our ability to make the ballot.”“What it really is is a desperate attempt by the Republican Party, which is in the pockets of the right-to-life groups in South Dakota, to prohibit us from getting on the ballot,” Mr. Weiland says.Mr. Weiland did say that anti-abortion activists are canvassing, attempting to get people to retract their signatures or to vote against the measure in November.Anti-abortion advocates are, according to Mr. Weiland, telling South Dakotans that the provision would allow abortion up until birth, force doctors or medical professionals to provide abortions, or appropriate taxpayer funds for abortion access.A survey conducted by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota shortly after the state’s ban went into effect found that 65 percent of respondents supported deciding the issue through a ballot measure.Another 79 percent opposed criminal penalties for people who help women obtain an abortion, and 57 percent of respondents supported allowing access to abortion medication in the state. South Dakota’s Life Defense Fund did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

South Dakota Abortion Measure on Track To Appear on November Ballot Despite Resistance From State Republicans

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