{"id":8078,"date":"2006-07-31T13:34:37","date_gmt":"2006-07-31T17:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8078.html"},"modified":"2006-07-31T13:34:37","modified_gmt":"2006-07-31T17:34:37","slug":"south-dakotans-balking-at-strict-abortion-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/south-dakotans-balking-at-strict-abortion-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"South Dakotans balking at strict abortion ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

In March, [tag]South Dakota[\/tag] Gov. [tag]Mike Rounds[\/tag] (R) signed legislation banning nearly all abortions in the state, a measure which generated an immediate lawsuit. But before the issue is decided in the courts, abortion-rights advocates turned in more than 37,000 signatures<\/a> that asked voters to decide on whether to overturn the [tag]ban[\/tag] through a [tag]ballot initiative[\/tag].<\/p>\n

Despite South Dakota’s conservative positions, voters, at least for the time being, seem poised to reject the prohibition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amid the often hostile rhetoric that pierces South Dakota’s closely watched [tag]abortion[\/tag] debate, a new survey shows that more residents of the largely conservative state oppose a ban on the pregnancy-ending procedure than support it, though that would change if exceptions for cases involving rape and incest were allowed.<\/p>\n

According to the statewide [tag]poll[\/tag], conducted for the Argus Leader and KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, 47 percent of voters polled would vote to reject the ban, compared with 39 percent who would vote to keep it. Another 14 percent were undecided.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If South Dakota’s sweeping ban is struck down by voters, but I can’t help but wonder if abortion-rights opponents may quietly hope that the initiative succeeds and the state law disappears.
\n
\nIndeed, let’s not forget that even ardent opponents of abortion rights were not necessarily thrilled<\/a> when the South Dakota measure became law.<\/p>\n

“I am very purely pro-life, and I would not have undertaken this strategy,” Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway says. She says it plays into “somewhat hysterical claims of extremism” by the left and “seems to give a largely dying, discredited (abortion rights) movement a little bit of gas.” [\u2026]<\/p>\n

South Dakota state Sen. J.P. Duniphan, who describes herself as a “pro-life” Republican, opposed the law. “It is a very unnecessary, expensive challenge,” she says. “And it is dividing the party.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, reading over the reactions from March<\/a>, there seemed to be something of a consensus: the South Dakota initiative is a huge gamble for opponents of abortion rights, which they very well may lose. Politically, the pro-choice community will use it as a rallying cry, and legally, there are still five votes on the Supreme Court that support Roe’s precedent.<\/p>\n

Isn’t it at least possible that some<\/i> abortion opponents in South Dakota may vote to undo the ban so as to avoid losing court battles and establishing court precedents in the coming months? If there’s a sizable percentage of the anti-abortion movement in the state who believed the law was a mistake, don’t be surprised if they vote strategically in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March, [tag]South Dakota[\/tag] Gov. [tag]Mike Rounds[\/tag] (R) signed legislation banning nearly all abortions in the state, a measure which generated an immediate lawsuit. But before the issue is decided in the courts, abortion-rights advocates turned in more than 37,000 signatures that asked voters to decide on whether to overturn the [tag]ban[\/tag] through a [tag]ballot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}