By With Constitutional Amendment G, voters will decide whether to establish a right to abortion in the South Dakota Constitution.
Recaps of all of seven ballot measures will be published in The Aberdeen Insider throughout October. Find information about all of the proposals at southdakotasearchlight.com. Click on the brown voter guide button at the top of the page on the right.
Here’s what to know about Amendment G, one of seven measures on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Attorney general’s explanation
This initiated amendment establishes a constitutional right to an abortion and provides a legal framework for the regulation of abortion. This framework would override existing laws and regulations concerning abortion.
The amendment establishes that during the first trimester a pregnant woman’s decision to obtain an abortion may not be regulated, nor may regulations be imposed on the carrying out of an abortion.
In the second trimester, the amendment allows the regulation of a pregnant woman’s abortion decision and the regulation of carrying out an abortion. Any regulation of a pregnant woman’s abortion decision, or of an abortion during the second trimester, must be reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.
MORE: Poll: Amendment to expand South Dakota abortion rights has nearly 20-point lead
In the third trimester, the amendment allows the regulation or prohibition of abortion except in those cases where the abortion is necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman. Whether an abortion is necessary during the third trimester must be determined by the pregnant woman’s physician according to the physician’s medical judgment.
Judicial clarification of the amendment might be necessary. The Legislature cannot alter the provisions of a constitutional amendment.
Vote yes to adopt the amendment.
Vote no to leave the constitution as it is.
Official pro and con statements
The South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office is directed by state law to publish pro and con statements from a proponent and opponent of each ballot question.
Pro statement
Politicians in Pierre have decreed that South Dakota women and girls who are raped must carry pregnancies to term. They’ve thrown miscarriage care into utter confusion and limited the availability of treatment for pregnancy complications. They need to butt out.
Let women and families live their lives. Let doctors and nurses practice their professions. Let freedom ring. That is what Amendment G will do.
Americans fought for freedom nearly 250 years ago and have been defending it ever since. No one values freedom more than South Dakotans. But two years ago, the freedoms of women across America were lost when the right to abortion health care that had existed for 50 years was suddenly taken away by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Amendment G, sometimes called the “Freedom Amendment,” would restore those rights. Amendment G simply writes into our state constitution the limited reproductive freedoms for women that, until 2022, were recognized in the U.S. Constitution. Wording of Amendment G intentionally mirrors the wording of Roe v. Wade, the decision that had guaranteed women those freedoms.
Tune out the radical “Right to Life” political noise, and just read Amendment G itself and the attorney general’s explanation of it. Both are very short.
Like most constitutional provisions, Amendment G will occasionally require judicial clarification, every one of which will be made by South Dakota judges. The dire predictions of unthinkable outcomes that opponents claim will occur under Amendment G are deceitful scare tactics that insult South Dakota’s judiciary and defy voters’ common sense.
To say the same language in Amendment G would be interpreted by South Dakota courts in some radical “pro- abortion” way is absurd.
-Nancy Turbak Berry, chair, South Dakotas for the Freedom Amendment
Con statement
With Constitutional Abortion Amendment G, the devil is in the details.
The wording of Amendment G is unclear and vague. So, to clear up the confusion, here’s what Amendment G would do:
Abortion Amendment G would impose California- and New York-style abortion laws into our state constitution. This is not a “moderate” or “middle-of-the-road” proposal.
A yes vote for Amendment G approves late-term abortion even after a baby is viable and can survive outside her mother’s womb. Most people oppose late-term abortion up to birth. Amendment G goes too far.
MORE: Rory King: Amendment G about enshrining right to abortion in constitution
A yes vote for Amendment G takes away parents’ rights to know when their teenage daughter is undergoing an abortion procedure. This means parents wouldn’t even be informed if their teenage daughter was being coerced into having an abortion. Don’t parents deserve the right to know when their daughter is undergoing a risky medical procedure? Amendment G takes parents’ rights away.
Because Amendment G was written to benefit the for-profit abortion industry, it dangerously deregulates the abortion industry. Currently, an abortion can only be done by a licensed doctor in a safe and clean setting. But a yes vote for Amendment G prohibits South Dakota legal protections for the physical and mental health of mothers for most abortions. Abortions can have dangerous and deadly side effects. That’s why numerous South Dakota medical professionals agree that by subjecting women to unsafe, unregulated abortions,Amendment G is dangerous for South Dakota women.
Voting no on Amendment G prohibits late-term abortions, allows parents to assist their daughters in a time of need and protects mothers from unsafe, unregulated abortions.
-Leslie Unruh and Jon Hansen, co-chairpeople of Life Defense Fund