South Dakota court ruling threatens abortion rights bill on November ballot
South Dakota Supreme Court overturns judge’s ruling decision last month that dismissed a lawsuit seeking to remove a abortion rights initiative of the November vote.
The court on Friday vacated the dismissal order and sent the case back for further proceedings. The anti-abortion group Life Defense Fund had appeals Judge John Pekas dismissed his complaint to invalidate the measure. alleged a myriad of wrongdoings linked to petition disseminators.
Meanwhile, South Dakota’s top election official has until Aug. 13 to notify county auditors of what measures will appear on the November ballot.
In a statement, Life Defense Fund co-chair Leslee Unruh said the group was pleased the court expedited the case and sent it back to the lower court.
“Rick Weiland (the measure’s leader) and his paid staff have broken laws, misled South Dakotans into signing their abortion petition, left petitions unanswered, and much more. Dakotans for Health illegally collected signatures to put Amendment G on the ballot, so this measure should not be on the ballot in November,” she said.
Weiland said: “This is just an ongoing effort by the Life Defense Fund and the right-to-life lobby to stop and obstruct the right of voters to weigh in on this measure, and they’ve continued, for almost 18 months, to do everything they can, now, to get it off the ballot.”
Supporters of the measure submitted about 54,000 petition signatures in May. Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s office then valid the measure for the ballot.
The measure would prohibit the state from regulating “a pregnant woman’s decision to abort and its implementation” during the first trimester, but it would allow regulations in the second trimester “only in a manner reasonably related to the pregnant woman’s physical health.”
The constitutional amendment would allow the state to regulate or prohibit abortion during the third trimester, “except when the abortion is necessary, in the medical judgment of the woman’s physician, to preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman.”
South Dakota outlaw Abortion is a serious crime except in cases where it is necessary to save the mother’s life, under a trigger law that came into effect in 2022 After the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the constitutional right to abortion.
Abortion rights supporters have won all seven statewide abortion votes since the Dobbs decision. Voters in several other states are also expected to occur later this year.
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Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.
