Revised abortion ban back on ballot

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. --- Two years after South Dakotans rejected a nearly total ban on abortion, voters on Nov. 4 will decide another sweeping but less restrictive ballot measure that probably would send a legal challenge of Roe v. Wade to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The initiative would outlaw abortions but include exceptions for rape, incest and pregnancies that threaten the life or health of the woman. Some voters said they wanted those exceptions when they rejected the tougher 2006 measure 56 percent to 44 percent.

Opponents say the new measure would jeopardize the patient-doctor relationship because physicians could be criminally charged for exceeding its bounds. They also argue that its exceptions are too narrowly defined and that it would force some women to carry an unhealthy fetus.

Leslee Unruh, the executive director of VoteYesForLife.com and the measure's main proponent, said it's legally sound.

Eleanor Smeal, the president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said the initiative could threaten legalized abortion in every state if it goes to a Supreme Court with a conservative tilt.

"This ban, which was defeated pretty solidly last time, is essentially the same ban this time but the language is more defective," Ms. Smeal said.

Ms. Unruh said the measure might provoke a legal challenge but that her focus is on preventing abortions in South Dakota.

"We'd be the first abortion-free state," she said.

South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, the main group urging the measure's defeat, has focused on statements from several doctors and health care groups expressing concerns about the legal ramifications.

In September, the South Dakota State Medical Association came out against the measure "solely based on interference by the government in medical practice and restrictions on physician-patient communications."

The group's president, Dr. Cynthia Weaver, said the group didn't take a side on abortion, just the ballot issue.

"Anything that interferes with our ability to talk to our patients and take care of them and where they have to do criminal investigations makes it difficult to have a good patient-doctor relationship," she said.

South Dakota doctors who support the measure vehemently disagree, Ms. Unruh said. The issue has the support of more than 40 state and national organizations, supporters say.