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The Ballot Measure:
Next month, the right to an abortion in South Dakota will be on the state’s ballot.
Amendment G, which would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution if passed, prohibits the government from regulating abortions in the first trimester of a pregnancy and allows the government to regulate abortions in the second and third trimesters with exceptions for when an abortion is necessary to “preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman.”
A “yes” vote would add the amendment to the state’s constitution, a vote against it would not.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, abortion in South Dakota became illegal—and performing one became a felony.
The Backlash:
South Dakota voters are divided over the amendment. Some are ecstatic to get the chance to vote “yes” on it.
“Vote YES on G. A No is TOO EXTREME,” one person on Reddit wrote.
However, others—namely South Dakota anti-abortion groups—are urging the public to vote against it.
“Amendment G is a terrible idea for South Dakota,” Patriot Ripple Effect, a South Dakota conservative activism group posted last week.
“Don’t let political fearmongering mislead you,” Doctors for Dakotans, a South Dakota coalition of doctors against the amendment tweeted last week. “Vote NO on Amendment G and keep radical agendas out of our Constitution.”
The Background:
South Dakota is one of eleven states that will have the statewide right to an abortion on its ballot next month, and the might anti-abortion groups in the state are arguing against the amendment is probably thanks to the fact that a state abortion referendum post-2022 has never failed.
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