South Dakotans are voting on a ballot measure that would guarantee a right to abortion in the first trimester. It would allow the state to regulate abortion only in ways “reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman” in the second trimester.
Major reproductive rights organizations including the ACLU and the regional Planned Parenthood affiliate groups aren’t supporting the proposal .
They argue that it doesn’t go far enough and that the group that worked to get it on the ballot, Dakotans for Health, rushed drafting and submitting the language
Abortion is banned in South Dakota with no exceptions for rape or incest. Voters rejected anti-abortion constitutional amendments in 2006 and 2008.
South Dakota is a red state; Republican former President Donald Trump carried it by 26 points in 2020.
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