Europe and North America
South Dakota to Revisit Restrictions on Abortion
April 26, 2008
Monica Davey, New York Times
Voters in South Dakota this fall will once again be asked to consider a sweeping
limit on abortion, the secretary of state announced on Friday. The new proposal
is widely seen as a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court
decision that made abortion legal.
South Dakota found itself in a similar
spot two years ago, when a ballot question on a broad abortion ban turned
national attention on the state’s 780,000 residents during an emotional and
expensive battle that lasted months and ended with the proposed ban’s defeat.
One element has changed in the question that will appear on the ballot this
November: This time the ban includes some exceptions for rape, incest, or the
life and health of the mother. Some South Dakotans said the absence of such
exceptions led them to vote against the 2006 proposal, which lost by 56 percent
to 44 percent.
• Read the complete article.