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Right to Abortion Initiative | ||
| Elections in South Dakota |
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South Dakota Amendment G is a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot on November 5, 2024. If passed, the amendment would establish a right to abortion in the Constitution of South Dakota up until approximately the second trimester [nb 1] of pregnancy. [2]
That Article VI of the Constitution of the State of South Dakota be amended by adding a NEW SECTION: [3]
Before the end of the first trimester, the State may not regulate a pregnant woman's abortion decision and its effectuation, which must be left to the judgment of the pregnant woman.
After the end of the first trimester and until the end of the second trimester, the State may regulate the pregnant woman's abortion decision and its effectuation only in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.
After the end of the second trimester, the State may regulate or prohibit abortion, except when abortion is necessary, in the medical judgment of the woman's physician, to preserve the life and health of the pregnant woman.
In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion were about protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens. [4] South Dakota's first ban on abortion was passed in 1877. [5] It read:
“Every person who administers to any pregnant woman, or who prescribes for any such woman, or advises or procures any such woman to take any medicine, drug or substance, or uses or employs any instrument, or other means whatever with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless the same is necessary to preserve her life, is punishable by imprisonment in the territorial prison not exceeding three years, or in a county jail not exceeding one year.”
By 1950, the state legislature had passed a law stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought to have an abortion, regardless of whether she went through with it, was guilty of a criminal offense. [4] In 1972, the South Dakota Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the state's abortion ban in State v. Munson. [6] Munson was overruled less than a year later due to the United States Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade . [7]
In 2005, the South Dakota Legislature enacted a trigger ban on abortion, which would ban abortion if Roe v. Wade was overturned. [8] A year later, Governor Mike Rounds signed the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act, a second total ban on abortion, into law. The law's ultimate goal was for the United States Supreme Court to overrule Roe. [9] The act was ultimately repealed later that year through a ballot initiative led by Planned Parenthood. [10]
In June of 2022, Planned Parenthood announced it would no longer provide abortion services in the state due to the pending decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization . This left the state with no abortion provider until the court's decision a week later. [11] After the court's decision in Dobbs, the state's trigger ban went into effect immediately. [12]
In 2022, Dakotans for Health, the group sponsoring the initiative, filed the amendment with Steve Barnett, the then-South Dakota Secretary of State. Barnett approved the measure for circulation on September 19, 2022. [13] On May 1, 2024, the group submitted some 55,000 signatures, well over the 35,000 needed to gain ballot access. [14] South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson certified the petition on May 17, 2024. [15]
Kristi Noem 
@KristiNoem .@realDonaldTrump is exactly right… this is about “precious babies.” It should be easier for moms, dads, and families to have babies — not harder. Different states will make different decisions on Life. What voters want in South Dakota might be different than what voters want in California. South Dakota is proud to stand for LIFE and support babies, moms, and families.
April 8, 2024
Before the organizers submitted the required signatures for the initiative, South Dakota's governor Kristi Noem had garnered controversy for her position on the state's abortion ban. In particular, her defense of the ban's lack of exceptions for rape and incest have been viewed as controversial. [16] In response to a video Donald Trump made regarding his position that the states should decide on abortion access, Noem echoed this sentiment and remarked, "Different states will make different decisions on Life. What voters want in South Dakota might be different than what voters want in California. South Dakota is proud to stand for LIFE and support babies, moms, and families." [17]
Shortly after this post, Noem reaffirmed this belief by saying, "The people will vote and they’ll decide what our state [abortion] law looks like...We get so much arguing and finger pointing. I’d rather that people just go out and have conversations. We, clearly, in the pro-life community, need to win people’s hearts and minds and that starts with loving people and helping mothers in crisis." [18] Noem also recognized that she would not have the last say on abortion access in the state, acknowledging that she "doesn’t get to be a dictator" on the laws. [18]
South Dakota's current abortion law outlaws all abortions with few exceptions. The proposed amendment's language is based off of the trimester framework originally in the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. [19] At the time, fetal viability was generally regarded to occur around 28 weeks gestation. [20] However, viability is now considered to be closer to around 23-24 weeks. [21] Additionally, the trimester framework in Roe was overturned in 1992 in Planned Parenthood v. Casey . [22] As a result, there have been questions and misinformation about the gestational limitations of Amendment G. Opponents of the amendment have falsely argued this would allow abortions until the moment of birth. [23] Similarly, abortion rights groups have argued that the initiative does not go far enough in allowing abortion. [24]
| Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size | Margin of error | Yes | No | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy | May 10–13, 2024 | 500 (RV) | ± 4.5% | 53% | 35% | 11% |
| Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy | November 27–29, 2023 | 500 (RV) | ± 4.5% | 46% | 44% | 11% |
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States generally protected a right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many abortion laws, and caused an ongoing abortion debate in the United States about whether, or to what extent, abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion, and what the role of moral and religious views in the political sphere should be. The decision also shaped debate concerning which methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication. The Supreme Court reversed the Roe decision in June 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion.
The United States abortion-rights movement is a sociopolitical movement in the United States supporting the view that a woman should have the legal right to an elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy, and is part of a broader global abortion-rights movement. The movement consists of a variety of organizations, with no single centralized decision-making body.
Abortion is a divisive issue in the United States. The issue of abortion is prevalent in American politics and culture wars, though a majority of Americans support continued access to abortion. There are widely different abortion laws depending on state.
The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly, depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction, although there is no uniform federal law. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions; others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while some allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements.
Abortion in Arizona is currently legal up to 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on April 9, 2024 that the near-total ban on abortion from 1864 is constitutional. Attorney General Kris Mayes has stated that based on court rulings, enforcement of this law can begin from September 26, 2024. However, Mayes, a Democrat, has also said that as long as she is in office, then women or doctors will not be prosecuted under this law. This ban has been repealed by the Arizona state legislature and Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, but the repeal will not take effect until 90 days after the legislative session ends.
Abortion in Colorado is legal at all stages of pregnancy. It is one of seven states without any term restrictions as to when a pregnancy can be terminated.
Abortion in Idaho is illegal from fertilization. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, abortion in Idaho was criminalized by the trigger law which states that a person who performs an abortion may face two to five years of imprisonment. The ban allows exceptions for maternal health, rape and incest within the first trimester. The law took effect on August 25, 2022.
Abortion in Kansas is legal. Kansas law allows for an abortion up to 20 weeks post-fertilization. After that point, only in cases of life or severely compromised physical health may an abortion be performed, with this limit set on the belief that a fetus can feel pain after that point in the pregnancy. The state also had detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement by 2007. Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) law applied to medication-induced abortions and private doctor offices, in addition to abortion clinics, were in place by 2013. In 2015, Kansas became the first state to ban the dilation and evacuation procedure, a common second-trimester abortion procedure. State laws about abortion have been challenged at the Kansas Supreme Court and US Supreme Court level. On August 2, 2022, Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the Republican-controlled legislature to restrict or ban abortion in Kansas, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Abortion in Michigan is legal throughout pregnancy. A state constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee abortion rights was placed on the ballot in 2022 as Michigan Proposal 22–3; it passed with 57 percent of the vote, adding the right to abortion and contraceptive use to the Michigan Constitution. The amendment largely prevents the regulation of abortion before fetal viability, unless said regulations are to protect the individual seeking an abortion, and it also makes it unconstitutional to make laws restricting abortions which would protect the life and health, physical and/or mental, of the pregnant individual seeking abortion.
Abortion in Mississippi is illegal. The new law took effect on July 7, 2022, after Mississippi State Attorney General Lynn Fitch certified on June 27, the Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on June 24 of that year. State Attorney General Lynn Fitch's certification made Mississippi's 2007 'trigger law' go into effect and ban all abortions in the state, “except in the case where necessary for the preservation of the mother's life or where the pregnancy was caused by rape".
Abortion in Ohio is legal up to the point of fetal viability as a result of abortion rights being placed into the Ohio State Constitution by November 2023 Ohio Issue 1.
Abortion in South Dakota is illegal. Anyone who induces an abortion is guilty of a Class 6 felony. An exception is included to "preserve the life of the pregnant female," given appropriate and reasonable medical judgment.
Abortion in the U.S. state of Virginia is legal up to the end of the second trimester of a pregnancy. Before the year 1900, abortion remained largely illegal in Virginia, reflecting a widespread trend in many U.S. states during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Abortion was viewed as a criminal act and subject to state laws that prohibited it. However, by 1950, Virginia introduced a legal therapeutic exception, allowing for abortion under specific circumstances, primarily when a woman's physical or mental health was at risk. Notably, the University of Virginia Hospital established a review board in 1950 responsible for evaluating and approving abortion requests, particularly those grounded in psychiatric reasons. This thorough approval process resulted in a significant decrease in the number of abortions performed at the hospital.
Abortion in California is legal up to the point of fetal viability. An abortion ban was in place by 1900, and by 1950, it was a criminal offense for a woman to have an abortion. In 1962, the American Law Institute published their model penal code, as it applied to abortions, with three circumstances where they believed a physician could justifiably perform an abortion, and California adopted a version of this code. In 2002, the California State Legislature passed a law guaranteeing women the right to have an abortion "prior to viability of the fetus, or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman". In 2022, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, which amended the Constitution of California to explicitly protect the right to abortion and contraception by a margin of 33.76%.
Abortion in Florida is generally illegal after six weeks from the woman's last menstrual period, when many women do not yet know they are pregnant. This law came into effect in May 2024, being approved by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis following its passage in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate, with only Republican state legislators supporting and only Democratic state legislators opposing. Additionally, pregnant women are generally required to make two visits to a medical facility 24 hours apart to be able to obtain an abortion, in a law approved by Republican Governor Rick Scott in 2015.
Jon Hansen serves as a representative for the 25th Legislative District in the South Dakota House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, and former Speaker pro tempore of the South Dakota House of Representatives.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), returning to individual states the power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal statutory law.
The 2022 Kansas abortion referendum was a rejected legislatively referred constitutional amendment to the Kansas Constitution that appeared on the ballot on August 2, 2022, alongside primary elections for statewide offices, with early voting from July 13. If enacted, the amendment would have declared that the Kansas Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion, given the Kansas state government power to prosecute individuals involved in abortions, and further declared that the Kansas government is not required to fund abortions.
The 2023 Ohio reproductive rights initiative, officially titled "The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety" and listed on the ballot as Issue 1, was a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment adopted on November 7, 2023, by a majority (56.8%) of voters. It codified reproductive rights in the Ohio Constitution, including contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and abortion up to the point of fetal viability, restoring Roe v. Wade-era access to abortion in Ohio.
The 2022 Vermont reproductive rights initiative, officially titled the "Reproductive Liberty Amendment", and listed on the ballot as Proposition 5, was a legislatively referred constitutional amendment that was adopted on November 8, 2022, by a majority of 76.8% of voters. It codified reproductive rights in the Constitution of Vermont.
