A group of anti-abortion activists in South Dakota has filed a lawsuit to block a vote on abortion rights legislation in November.
In its complaint filed Thursday, the Life Defense Fund alleged that the measure’s proponents committed various misconduct, including invalid signatures and fraud. The group wants the initiative to be disqualified or invalidated.
In May, Secretary of State Monae Johnson certified the Dakotans for Health bill for the November 5 general election. The bill’s supporters had submitted about 54,000 signatures to allow the ballot initiative to pass. They needed about 35,000 signatures. Johnson’s office considered about 85 percent of the signatures valid based on a random sample.
The Life Defense Fund claimed that Dakotans for Health did not submit a required affidavit of residency for petition distributors and that petitioners did not always provide the required handout and left petition sheets unattended. The Life Defense Fund also objected to numerous other signatures as invalid, claiming that petitioners misled people about what they were signing.
“The public should closely examine Dakotans for Health’s comments and carefully consider their credibility. Ultimately, the court will decide whether such unlawful conduct can result in the measure being placed on the ballot,” Sara Frankenstein, an attorney for the Life Defense Fund, said in an email Monday.
Dakotans for Health called the Life Defense Fund’s lawsuit “a last-ditch attempt to undermine the democratic process.”
“They have done everything in their power, and now the kitchen sink, to prevent voters from casting their ballots in November. We are confident that the people of South Dakota will make this decision in November, not the politicians,” co-founder Rick Weiland said in a statement Friday.
The measure would prohibit the state from regulating “a pregnant woman’s abortion decision and its implementation” in the first trimester. In the second trimester, however, regulations would be permitted “only in a manner that is proportionate to the physical health of the pregnant woman.”
The amendment would allow states to regulate or prohibit third-trimester abortions “except when, in the medical judgment of the attending physician, the abortion is necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman.”
In South Dakota, abortion is a sedate crime unless it is performed to save the life of the mother. This law took effect in 2022 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which struck down the constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.
The measure faced opposition in South Dakota’s Republican-dominated legislature earlier this year. The legislature passed a resolution officially opposing the measure and passed a law allowing signers of ballot initiatives to withdraw their signatures. The latter is not expected to affect the measure, which goes to the ballot.
The Life Defense Fund also wants to prohibit Dakotans for Health and its employees from supporting or distributing petitions or serving on grassroots initiative committees for the next four years.
South Dakota is one of four states, along with Colorado, Florida and Maryland, that will vote in November on measures to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Petitions are pending in seven other states to include similar issues.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago and struck down the federal right to abortion, there have been seven state votes on the issue of abortion, and abortion rights activists have prevailed in all of them.
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Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota. Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this story from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
