Abortion amendment certified for ballot, legal threat lingers
Abortion amendment certified for ballot, legal threat lingers
Milestone gives Dakotans for Health victory in battle with Life Defense Fund
A proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize abortion in South Dakotans has enough support to make the fall ballot.
The South Dakota Secretary of State’s office has certified petitions for Dakotans for Health “Restore Roe” ballot question, validating about 85 percent of the nearly 55,000 signatures submitted earlier this month.
“The title for the ballot question will be Constitutional Amendment G,”Secretary of State Monae Johnson said in a news release Thursday.
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The random sample of signatures reviewed resulted in the 85 percent validation rate, giving the amendment plenty of breathing room above the 35,017 required of proposed constitutional amendment to make the ballot.
That validation comes to despite an aggressive push by Life Defense Fund (LDF), an organization attempting to block the abortion amendment from taking affect, to hamper the petition during the validation process.
“If there is anyone out there who still wonders whether abortion rights will be on the ballot in South Dakota this Fall, today is your answer,” Dakotans for Health said in a news release of its own. “Yes, today says, the people want women, not politicians, to have the right to decide.”
The proposal asks voters to ditch South Dakota’s near-total abortion ban, and create a trimester standard closer to what justices established in the Roe v. Wade case of 1973.
Approval of the petitions is a victory for Dakotans for Health, but sets the stage for Life Defense Fund to move forward with a legal challenge they have vowed to pursue should the constitutional amendment be certified. LDF has alleged that Dakotans for Health violated the law during the petition collection process, an accusation that Weiland has denied on several occasions. LDF also faced criticism this week for a telephone call campaign asking signers of the petition to withdrawn their signatures.
“We will continue to research these signatures and announce a challenge at the appropriate time,” Hansen said following certification of the abortion ballot measure.
Three other measures have been approved to appear on the November ballot, with several more pending. Two came from the Legislature, the third was another proposal from Dakotans for Health that would repeal the state’s tax on groceries.
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