March 20, 2024
We’ve maintained for some time now that South Dakota has some of the best pro-life protections in the country. Students for Life Action (SFLAction) highlighted the excellent life at conception law signed by Governor Kristi Noem, and the legislation we support that will only make it more clear how to protect the lives of pregnant mothers.
In another brilliant move by the State, South Dakota is letting voters do what the pro-abortion lobby dreads most: choose.
The article at Mother Jones breaks down why: “…as the 2024 election approaches, with reproductive rights activists pushing to get abortion-rights amendments on ballots in almost a dozen states, Republican politicians have been throwing spaghetti at the wall to find a way to stop them. The most recent example comes from South Dakota, where state law currently prohibits all abortions, except those needed to save a pregnant person’s life. There, a group called Dakotans for Health is collecting signatures to get a limited right to abortion enshrined in the state constitution.
As they’ve done in other states, Republicans are trying to stop the amendment from going before voters: On Friday, Republican Gov. Krisiti Noem signed a bill to allow people to revoke their signatures from ballot initiative petitions.”
Why does this matter so much? Simply put, signature collection campaigns and ballot initiatives are a favorite tool of the pro-abortion lobby. They’re designed to muddy the waters, be confusing, and use deceptive tactics to get hapless voters to sign onto something they don’t fully understand.
READ: Abortion IS on the Ballot: The Top Pro-Life Ballot Initiatives for 2024
This confusion also becomes a gift to judges and lawyers. The interpretation of the vague or confusing language ends up taking the issue even further than expected (which is certainly a goal.) And they can be a tool of carpet baggers, coming into a state with their politics and outside cash, and then leaving when they get what they want. We saw that in Ohio in 2023, just to give one example.
READ: GUEST POST: Letter from Students for Life President on Yesterday’s Election Results
But as for the decision to allow people to take their signatures back? It’s great – every American state should keep making things difficult for the pro-abortion lobby. That’s just good politics, and it’s playing for keeps on an issue where lives are literally at stake.
And people should be able to rescind their support for something if they realize the full extent of the barbarism that pro-abortionists are pushing for. To use the pro-abortion Constitutional Amendment in South Dakota as an example, if it’s on the ballot and wins, it would create abortion laws in South Dakota more extreme than some European nations.
Thankfully, South Dakota is giving people that right to choose what to do with their own ballot signature, and the pro-abortion extremists can cope and seethe about it.