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RandySF

(57,592 posts)
Sun Jun 4, 2023, 02:44 PM Jun 2023

SD: Abortion measure tangled up in fight over petition location

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (South Dakota News Watch) - The clash over South Dakota’s abortion ban and an attempt to make abortion a voter-approved constitutional right in 2024 have a new battleground: the Minnehaha County Administration Building.

Called the “gold standard” of petition circulation by groups soliciting signatures for ballot measures, the government facility in central Sioux Falls features a steady flow of foot traffic from the parking lot to its main entrance. Circulators often station themselves there with clipboards and requests for support of their political cause.

One of the groups is Dakotans for Health, a grassroots organization seeking enough signatures to put the abortion issue on the 2024 ballot.

If passed, it would enshrine the right to abortion in the South Dakota Constitution and supersede a 2005 state trigger law that took effect when Roe vs. Wade was overturned and made it a Class 6 felony to perform an abortion except to save the life of the mother.

Some of the petition circulators have clashed with volunteers from the anti-abortion Life Defense Fund, whose founders call the proposed amendment “a grave threat to life in our state.” The group aims to thwart petitioners through its “Decline to Sign” campaign.

Verbal skirmishes between the groups, and what some county employees and customers characterize as increasingly aggressive behavior from circulators, led the Minnehaha County Commission to adopt a new policy for petition gathering on May 2. It was based upon the recommendation of county auditor Leah Anderson, who was elected in November and sworn in on March 5.




https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2023/06/04/abortion-measure-tangled-up-fight-over-petition-location/

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