South Dakota becomes abortion focal point

Voters will decide in a Nov. 7 referendum.
WASHINGTON POST
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Kayla Brandt had an abortion three years ago and instantly hated having done it. Now, hoping to stop other women from making the same choice, she is a public advocate for the most severe abortion ban in the nation.
"I don't want anyone to feel what I did," Brandt says.
Maria Bell is a Sioux Falls obstetrician-gynecologist who also joined the political fray for the first time, but on the opposite side.
Appalled by the attempt to shut the state's only abortion clinic, she says she would not be able to live with herself unless she worked to overturn the law.
"To think passing a law will stop abortion is incredibly naive," Bell said.
South Dakota is the unlikely home of this year's most intense duel over abortion, a Nov. 7 referendum to decide the future of HB 1215, a measure that would institute a broad ban on the procedure.
No exceptions would be allowed for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest -- abortion would be permitted only when the mother's life is in jeopardy.
Partisans across the nation are delivering money and tactical advice on an issue that has divided residents of the state. South Dakota's fight could be a harbinger of political battles across the country should the Supreme Court strike down Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
The bold South Dakota strategy has energized some proponents while highlighting strategic splits in the antiabortion movement. Many committed foes, focusing on incremental steps to make abortion less accessible, believe that Roe vs. Wade cannot realistically be challenged until the composition of the Supreme Court shifts further.
A felony
Performing an abortion in South Dakota would be a felony if the mother's life is not in danger, according to the law, which declares that mother and fetus "each possess a natural and inalienable right to life." There is no exception for rape, although rape victims would be permitted to take morning-after contraceptives "prior to the time when a pregnancy could be determined through conventional medical testing."
Gov. Mike Rounds, a Republican, signed the bill into law in March, declaring that the unborn are "the most helpless persons in our society." Architects of the law never really expected it to be implemented. Instead, they figured that it would be the subject of a lawsuit that would eventually make its way to the Supreme Court, where they hoped it would be upheld by the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.
But instead of suing to block the law, opponents are using a 19th-century provision that allows voters to overrule the legislature by referendum. Meanwhile, the law is on hold.
In a socially conservative state of 775,000 residents who twice gave George W. Bush 60 percent of the vote, abortion defenders gathered more than 38,000 signatures -- more than twice the number necessary -- to place the measure on the ballot.
Also on the Nov. 7 ballot is a constitutional amendment that would define a marriage as being between a man and a woman while prohibiting the recognition of "civil unions, domestic partnerships or other quasi-marital relationships between two or more persons regardless of sex."