SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – The Freedom Amendment Coalition announced the first Republican-led support group for Amendment G, a November ballot measure to legalize abortion.
The group, Republicans for Freedom Amendment G, was announced during a July 9 Zoom conference. Freedom Amendment Coalition chair Nancy Turbak Berry said over 20,000 of the petition signatures for Amendment G were by registered Republicans.
“Republicans wanted it on the ballot,” Turbak Berry said. “About one third of the people who signed the petitions for Amendment G, the Freedom Amendment, are registered Republicans. Those are registered Republicans willing to put their name on the line knowing the harassment that they might be subject to by the politicians and their puppeteers.”
The first chair for the group is former Republican Rep. Casey Murschel, who served three terms in the legislature and was in Pierre during the 2006 abortion ban and ballot measure.
“Unfortunately, we are here again, but I will stand up and ask other Republicans to stand with us,” Murschel said.
Amendment G details abortion requirements based on the trimester. During the first trimester, the state would not intervene in a woman’s pregnancy or decision to abort. During the second trimester, the state may regulate abortions but only for the physical health of the pregnant woman and during the third trimester, the state may prohibit an abortion except when medically necessary.
“It’s a sliding scale, the younger the embryo or fetus, the more rights that the individual mother or family has,” Turbak Berry said. “As you get later in the pregnancy, the more right the state has to be involved.”
Murschel said the proposed law is a close model to the Roe V. Wade opinion, which was intentional.
“The advantage of that is that people have been working under that legal umbrella for 50 years,” she said. “Hospitals and doctors and the medical profession and the legal profession and the men and the women on the street know what that looks like and how it operates. I think it’s disingenuous to imply that this amendment creates new things that we’ve never seen before.”
Currently, Murschel is the only Republican in the Republicans for Freedom Amendment G, which is under the Dakotans for Health and Freedom Amendment Coalition. She said the press conference on Tuesday was a kickoff event to let Republicans in the state know they’re established and can join.
“What the purpose then for the Republicans for Freedom Amendment G is to help them know that they are not alone,” Murschel said. “We know they’re there and want to participate. So we wanna give them that forum to be able to do that.”
During the conference, Turbak Berry referenced the fall 2023 South Dakota State University poll that said 66% of Republican voters support abortion and the exception for rape and incest.
She also acknowledged that the GOP majority in South Dakota will likely try to fight the ballot measure if it passes. She cited that they already have with other initiatives like legalizing marijuana or Medicaid expansion.
“So, will they fight it? I’m sure they will. I mean, they’re fighting it right now. They’re trying to not even let South Dakotans vote on it,” Turbak Berry said.
She’s referring to the current state court action by the Life Defense Fund against Dakotans for Health. The lawsuit seeks to delegitimize the petition signatures and remove the Amendment form the November ballot.
According to a 2022 AP News article, Murschel changed her party affiliation to independent after the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. During the news conference, she confirmed that she switched her party back to Republican in order to vote in this year’s primaries.
