Abortion ban is back on South Dakota 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 would probably send a legal challenge of Roe v. Wade to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The initiative would outlaw abortions, but includes exceptions for rape, incest and pregnancies that threaten the life or health of a 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, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said the initiative could threaten legalized abortion in every state, especially if it goes before a 2011 or 2012 Supreme Court she says would probably tilt to the right if Sen. John McCain becomes president.

McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, supports the right-to-abortion principles of Roe v. Wade. Each candidate has said he would not apply a litmus test to Supreme Court nominees based on the abortion issue.

Colorado and California also have abortion-related measures on the ballot, but "this is one of the worst bans," Smeal said of the South Dakota proposal. "This ban, which was defeated pretty solidly last time, is essentially the same ban."

Unruh said that 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.