A state judge’s ruling Monday keeps the issue of abortion rights on the November ballot in South Dakota.
Judge John Pekas rejected a lawsuit filed by an anti-abortion groupLife Defense Fund, which sought to remove the question, even though supporters turned in more than enough valid signatures to put it on the ballot.
“They threw everything they could think of to stop the people of South Dakota from voting on this issue,” Adam Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health, said in a statement after the ruling. “This is yet another failed effort by a small group that opposes giving women the option to terminate pregnancies caused by rape and incest or to address dangerous pregnancies that affect women’s lives and health.”
Republican Rep. Jon Hansen, co-president of the Life Defense Fund and an attorney for the group, did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press on Monday.
South Dakota is one of 14 states that currently prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy, a possibility that the US Supreme Court opened the door in 2022, when it overturned Roe v. Wade. Wade and ended the national right to abortion.
The amendment supported by Dakotans for Health would prevent the state from regulating “a pregnant woman’s decision to abort and carry it out” in the first trimester, but would allow second-trimester regulations “only in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.” ”
Since Roe was overturned, all seven statewide abortion-related ballot measures they followed the path that abortion rights groups wanted.
This year, similar the questions are on the ballots in five states, plus an equal rights issue in New York that would prohibit discrimination based on “pregnancy results,” among other factors.
Advocates are waiting for signatures to be verified to take questions on the ballot this year in four more states, including Nebraska, where there could be competing questions about abortion rights before voters.
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