Voters in South Dakota rejected a ballot amendment that would have enshrined a right to abortion in the State Constitution, according to The Associated Press.
South Dakota has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans, and the measure had been up against heavy spending by Republicans and national groups that oppose abortion rights. The state is one of a handful where polls show less than a majority saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
And abortion rights groups that backed similar amendments in other states declined to support the one in South Dakota, saying that the language was so broad that the Legislature could have still effectively made abortion unavailable in the state.
But the sponsors of the measure believed that it was in keeping with what the state’s relatively conservative electorate wanted. They said it would have restored the protections that existed — and that voters liked — under Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court decision that found a right to abortion in the federal Constitution.
And they argued that they had to do something to loosen South Dakota’s ban, which prohibits abortion except when it is necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman, and includes no exceptions for cases of rape, incest or for the health of the pregnant woman.
The amendment would have legalized abortion in the first trimester. The state could have restricted it in the second trimester if those restrictions were “reasonably” related to the physical health of the pregnant woman, and could have banned abortion in the third trimester except in cases where it is necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman.
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