South Dakota court ruling threatens abortion rights measure on November ballot

The South Dakota Supreme Court reversed a judge’s decision decision last month that dismissed an action aimed at removing a abortion rights initiative of the November vote.

The court on Friday reversed the dismissal order and sent the case back for further proceedings. The anti-abortion group Life Defense Fund had appealed Decision by Judge John Pekas that dismissed the lawsuit that sought to invalidate the measure. The group alleged a myriad of irregularities related to petition circulators.

In a statement, Life Defense Fund co-president Leslee Unruh said the group is thrilled that the court expedited the case and sent it back to the trial court.

“(Measure leader) Rick Weiland and his paid group broke laws, tricked South Dakotans into signing their abortion petition, left petitions unattended, and more. Dakotans for Health illegally collected signatures to place Amendment G on the ballot, so this measure should not be on the ballot in November,” she said.

The Associated Press emailed a request for comment to Dakotans for Health, the group that introduced the measure. Measure supporters subject around 54,000 petition signatures in May. Office of Secretary of State Monae Johnson later validated the measure for voting.

The measure would prevent the state from regulating “a pregnant woman’s abortion decision and its completion” in the first trimester, but would allow regulations in the second trimester “only in ways that are reasonably related to the pregnant woman’s physical health.”

The constitutional amendment would allow the State to regulate or prohibit abortion in the third trimester, “except when the abortion is necessary, in the woman’s medical judgment, to preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman.”

South Dakota out of law abortion as a serious crime, except in cases to save the mother’s life, under a trigger law that came into force in 2022 after the US Supreme Court knocked down the constitutional right to abortion.

Abortion rights advocates have prevailed on all seven statewide abortion ballot questions since the Dobbs decision. Voters in various other states should also weigh in this year.

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Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.