NOTE: This is the fifth of seven stories previewing the seven different ballot questions South Dakota voters will weigh in on in the 2024 General Election. Absentee voting starts Sept. 20, the voter registration deadline is Oct. 21 and Election Day is Nov. 5.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – South Dakota residents will vote on the state of reproductive healthcare and abortion in the upcoming November election.
In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled to remove the nationwide right to abortion, or Roe v. Wade, which pushed the responsibility of abortion law onto individual states. The state’s trigger law, which banned abortions, went into effect. South Dakota joins seven other states voting on abortion access this election.
Under current South Dakota law, abortion is banned and considered a Class 6 felony punishable by up to two years in prison and up to a $4,000 fine. The only exception to the law is if there is an “appropriate and reasonable medical judgment” that an abortion would save the mother’s life. There is no exception for rape or incest. Also under South Dakota law, the female may not be held criminally liable for the abortion.
Although Amendment G will be on the ballot, there is a chance it won’t take effect, even if it passes. Anti-abortion group Life Defense Fund is currently suing the organization that got the measure on the ballot. Depending on the outcome of the lawsuit, the amendment may become retroactively invalid and wouldn’t take effect.
Despite the ongoing legal battle, South Dakotans will weigh in on the issue of abortion at the ballot box for the third time since 2006 and first time since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
What does a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote mean?
A ‘yes’ vote would support South Dakota providing a state constitutional right to an abortion under a trimester framework:
- First trimester: the state would be prohibited from regulating a woman’s decision to have an abortion,
- Second trimester: the state may regulate abortion, but “only in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman,”
- Third trimester: the state may regulate and interfere with a woman’s abortion unless it is medically necessary to preserve the life of a mother.
A ‘no’ vote would oppose the amendment and South Dakota’s current abortion laws will remain.
‘Yes’ and ‘no’ support
Dakotans For Health, the organization that got the amendment on the ballot, said one of the reasons they brought the issue forward in order to reinstate a woman’s right to choose.
“It doesn’t impose one person’s view over another person’s view when it comes to reproductive health care,” Dakotans for Health Co-founder Rick Weiland said. “If a woman gets raped and she becomes pregnant, she should have a choice. She doesn’t have one right now in South Dakota. …A woman has no freedom; If she gets raped and pregnant, she has to carry the pregnancy to term. The same thing for a victim of rape or a victim of incest.”
KELOLAND News election resources
Weiland said the amendment is nearly identical to Roe v. Wade. This way, doctors can continue operating under the same language they have been for 50 years when the national abortion law was signed in the 70s.
“A lot of doctors are pretty concerned about being sued, losing their career, being incarcerated because in South Dakota, under the current abortion law, it’s a class 6 felony if they assist a woman in the process of terminating the pregnancy,” Weiland said.
The anti-abortion group, Life Defense Fund, said people should vote no on Amendment G because they believe it’s a radical amendment that would allow abortions at any point in the pregnancy.
“There would be absolutely no health and safety protections for women for most abortions. It’ll be the Wild West,” Life Defense Fund Spokesperson Caroline Woods said. “Abortions would no longer have to be done by a doctor, and laws ensuring facilities are clean and safe would be canceled. Under Amendment G, parental rights will be stripped. Parents will be left in the dark when a trafficker or rapist forces their young daughter to abort her baby, cutting parents completely out of the picture.”
Abortion Lawsuit
Life Defense Fund sued Dakotans for Health in June on the grounds of invalid petition signatures, hoping to get the amendment removed from the ballot.
The lawsuit has extended further beyond the dates for ballots to be circulated and early voting starts, so voters will still weigh in on the amendment, despite its future being uncertain.
The next hearing is scheduled for late September.
