2024 South Dakota Amendment G

South Dakota Amendment G is a proposed constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot on November 5, 2024. If passed, the amendment would establish a right to abortion in the Constitution of South Dakota up until approximately the second trimester of pregnancy.

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That Article VI of the Constitution of the State of South Dakota be amended by adding a NEW SECTION:

Before the end of the first trimester, the State may not regulate a pregnant woman's abortion decision and its effectuation, which must be left to the judgment of the pregnant woman.

After the end of the first trimester and until the end of the second trimester, the State may regulate the pregnant woman's abortion decision and its effectuation only in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.

After the end of the second trimester, the State may regulate or prohibit abortion, except when abortion is necessary, in the medical judgment of the woman's physician, to preserve the life and health of the pregnant woman.

South Dakota's abortion laws
In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion were about protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens. South Dakota's first ban on abortion was passed in 1877. It read:"“Every person who administers to any pregnant woman, or who prescribes for any such woman, or advises or procures any such woman to take any medicine, drug or substance, or uses or employs any instrument, or other means whatever with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless the same is necessary to preserve her life, is punishable by imprisonment in the territorial prison not exceeding three years, or in a county jail not exceeding one year.”" By 1950, the state legislature had passed a law stating that a woman who had an abortion or actively sought to have an abortion, regardless of whether she went through with it, was guilty of a criminal offense. In 1972, the South Dakota Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the state's abortion ban in State v. Munson. Munson was overruled less than a year later due to the United States Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade.

In 2005, the South Dakota Legislature enacted a trigger ban on abortion, which would ban abortion if Roe v. Wade was overturned. A year later, Governor Mike Rounds signed the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act, a second total ban on abortion, into law. The law's ultimate goal was for the United States Supreme Court to overrule Roe. The act was ultimately repealed later that year through a ballot initiative led by Planned Parenthood.

In June of 2022, Planned Parenthood announced it would no longer provide abortion services in the state due to the pending decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. This left the state with no abortion provider until the court's decision a week later. After the court's decision in Dobbs, the state's trigger ban went into effect immediately.

Ballot measure submission
In 2022, Dakotans for Health, the group sponsoring the initiative, filed the amendment with Steve Barnett, the then-South Dakota Secretary of State. Barnett approved the measure for circulation on September 19, 2022. On May 1, 2024, the group submitted some 55,000 signatures, well over the 35,000 needed to gain ballot access. South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson certified the petition on May 17, 2024.

Comments by Governor Kristi Noem
.@realDonaldTrump is exactly right… this is about “precious babies.” It should be easier for moms, dads, and families to have babies — not harder. Different states will make different decisions on Life. What voters want in South Dakota might be different than what voters want in California. South Dakota is proud to stand for LIFE and support babies, moms, and families. April 8, 2024

Before the organizers submitted the required signatures for the initiative, South Dakota's governor Kristi Noem had garnered controversy for her position on the state's abortion ban. In particular, her defense of the ban's lack of exceptions for rape and incest have been viewed as controversial. In response to a video Donald Trump made regarding his position that the states should decide on abortion access, Noem echoed this sentiment and remarked, "Different states will make different decisions on Life. What voters want in South Dakota might be different than what voters want in California. South Dakota is proud to stand for LIFE and support babies, moms, and families."

Shortly after this post, Noem reaffirmed this belief by saying, "The people will vote and they’ll decide what our state [abortion] law looks like...We get so much arguing and finger pointing. I’d rather that people just go out and have conversations. We, clearly, in the pro-life community, need to win people’s hearts and minds and that starts with loving people and helping mothers in crisis." Noem also recognized that she would not have the last say on abortion access in the state, acknowledging that she "doesn’t get to be a dictator" on the laws.

Gestational limitation
South Dakota's current abortion law outlaws all abortions with few exceptions. The proposed amendment's language is based off of the trimester framework originally in the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. At the time, fetal viability was generally regarded to occur around 28 weeks gestation. However, viability is now considered to be closer to around 23-24 weeks. Additionally, the trimester framework in Roe was overturned in 1992 in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. As a result, there have been questions and misinformation about the gestational limitations of Amendment G. Opponents of the amendment have falsely argued this would allow abortions until the moment of birth. Similarly, abortion rights groups have argued that the initiative does not go far enough in allowing abortion.