Abortion rights group says it has more than enough signatures to force vote
Dakotans for Health will turn in petitions a week ahead of May 7 deadline
The group seeking to overturn South Dakota’s abortion ban announced Wednesday it will turn in more than 55,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office, capping a nearly 18-month effort to bring a constitutional amendment to voters.
Dakotans for Health planned to submit the signatures in Pierre on Wednesday afternoon, triggering an automatic random review of signatures before the amendment can be certified for the ballot in November. Group co-founder Rick Weiland said he is confident they would withstand any challenges.
“We know there’s going to be enough,” he said. About 37,000 valid signatures are required to qualify.
Weiland was joined by reproductive rights activist Tiffany Campbell and Watertown lawyer Nancy Turbak during a press conference in downtown Sioux Falls. They were joined by about three dozen supporters.
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Abortion was banned in South Dakota on June 24, 2022, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established abortion as a constitutional right. In 2005, the South Dakota Legislature passed a measure — a so-called “trigger law” — that banned abortion if Roe were ever overturned. The law was signed by then Gov. Mike Rounds.
The push to repeal the law via ballot began on Nov. 5, 2022. The effort attracted 1,000 volunteers, including 500 who collected signatures in 350 South Dakota communities, Weiland said.
“The abortion ban passed by the Legislature is the most fundamental a question of the power of government versus the rights of a private citizen,” Weiland said. “This is a freedom amendment for a free state.”
The press conference came about an hour after Life Defense Fund, an anti-abortion group, announced that it would challenge the validity of signatures and the collection process, alleging that many people who signed the petition were duped. The group alleges that signers thought they were signing something else.
Outside the press conference, about two dozen Life Defense Fund supporters held signs and flags, chanting, “deception is not democracy.”
Weiland called it “desperate behavior” to deny voters a choice in the matter.
“They know when this gets on the ballot it’s going to pass,” he said.
Should it survive the legal challenge and certification process, the proposed amendment will be the third time in 20 years that South Dakota voters have weighed in on abortion, among the most acrimonious issues in American politics. Voters in 2006 and 2008 rejected abortion bans in South Dakota.
The framing of the campaign took shape Wednesday. Campbell spoke of her choice to abort a twin that she was carrying in order to save the life of the other.
“In this state I would not be able to make that decision here,” she said.
Turbak, a former state senator, cited South Dakota rape statistics — among the highest in the nation — and said that rape and incest victims in South Dakota are forced to carry children conceived in those situations.
“The freedom of pregnant females should be restored,” she said.
Women have the Right to Choose. There is No Definition of Freedom that includes the Government controlling someone's body. None.
This will be certified, and will pass in Nov by 55-60%. There will be a LOT of fear-mongering until then. The opponents will call it "overly permissive" "baby-killing" and so forth. The GOP had the opportunity to pass a rule which would be an acceptable compromise. They have not done so.