Pro-life or pro-choice. It’s a tough issue and a touchy subject here in South Dakota.
Right before the election, both sides of the issue were working hard to bring to light the facts about Measure 11.
Two years ago South Dakota exploded onto the map when the state tried to pass Referred Law 6—a law that stated that no abortion could be performed in the state of South Dakota no matter what the circumstances were. South Dakota is not the only state that has tried to pass such laws with states like California adding similar initiatives to their ballot this year.
This year the abortion ban is back in South Dakota, but with a few minor adjustments. First off it has a new name. The ban is now called Measure 11 and under this new version women would be allowed to have an abortion if they were victims of rape/incest or if it was hazardous to their health. Exceptions for the life and health of the pregnant woman come with the condition that there must be “serious risk of a substantial and irreversible impairment of the function of a major bodily organ or system of the pregnant woman.”
To qualify for the rape or incest exception under Measure 11, those crimes must be reported to the authorities before an abortion is performed. The report must include the name, address and age of the woman, as well as the name, address and age, or a physical description, of the alleged rapist. Incest victims must identify their relationship to the alleged perpetrator. DNA tissue samples from the woman and the aborted fetus must be collected by the physician and transferred to law enforcement. So must the woman’s medical records, with names redacted, if requested by the state Department of Health.
While the thought of having all that information being spread around may be a deterrent from getting an abortion it may also scare women away from reporting their rape for fear of who might find out.
“Measure 11 is publicized as a ban with exceptions, but they’re really not there,” said Rapid City lawyer Jim Leach. “Now, we’ve got a law that has fake exceptions for life and health of the mother, and fake exceptions for rape and incest.”
VoteYesForLife.com campaign manager Leslee Unruh says that the idea that Measure 11’s exceptions are meaningless as “pure spin” is ridiculous.
“No doctor in his right mind would do an abortion under those exceptions,” Leach went on to comment. “Nothing in the law protects a physician from being second-guessed by a pro-life doctor or lawyer who disagrees with his or her abortion decision.”
This is an issue of women’s rights versus what the government feels is right for women. If doctors wouldn’t be willing to perform the abortions even with the new exceptions then it seems that Measure 11 might have the same fate that Referred Law 6 did, and indeed it did. On November 4th, in a 45%-55% vote, South Dakota voted against Measure 11, a vote that many saw as good seeing as how if Initiative 11 was passed it would go against the ruling of the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v Wade. It seems that the people of South Dakota feel that it’s not the government’s place to decide for women what is right and wrong and the right to privacy is a right that shouldn’t be obstructed.