Unlike other abortion-rights initiatives across the country, major reproductive rights groups haven’t backed the effort to restore access in South Dakota.
But that hasn’t stopped Dakotans for Health — a ballot question committee behind a measure that is set to appear on the November ballot — from galvanizing voters in the state, where abortion is banned unless the mother’s life is at risk. South Dakota enacted a trigger law, first passed by lawmakers in 2005, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.
The ballot question asks voters to ban legislators from regulating abortion until the end of the first trimester, allow regulations during the second trimester “in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman” and let the state prohibit abortion in the third trimester unless the procedure is necessary to save the life or health of a pregnant patient.
Despite the lack of support from major organizations, the group, let by Rick Weiland submitted more than 55,000 petition-signatures to election officials in May. About 46,000 of those signatures were from registered voters, even though the group only needed roughly 35,000 valid signatures to make the ballot.
Pro-life groups have mobilized against the measure. Republican Rep. Jon Hansen introduced a bill this year allowing voters to withdraw their signatures from petitions. GOP Gov. Kristi Noem signed the measure into law in March, along with approving legislation that directed health officials to create a video explaining the state’s abortion ban.
Hansen is also co-chair of the Life Defense Fund, a group that Republican Secretary of State Monae Johnson called “scammers” and accused its members of “impersonating” her staff during calls that encouraged voters to remove their signatures from the petition, Searchlight reported. (Johnson asked the attorney general to investigate the calls, but he said no laws were broken and the anti-abortion group identified themselves as volunteers.)
With a few months left until Election Day, Dakotans for Health is focused on encouraging people to vote “yes” for Amendment G. Last month, it launched the Freedom Amendment Coalition led by former Democratic state lawmaker Nancy Turbak Berry. Republicans and doctors have announced their support to restore abortion access in South Dakota, too.
