South Dakota Governor Says Abortion Ban Could Return in 2008 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 23, 2007
Pierre, SD (LifeNews.com) — South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds said the state legislature still had a chance to put an abortion ban before voters on the 2008 ballot. Though the legislature defeated a second attempt to ban abortions it could come back in the next legislative session and approve a ban for voters to consider.
Last November, state voters rejected a ballot proposal to ban abortions in the state, but polls before the election found they would have approved it if it had exceptions for rape and incest.
The state House passed a revised abortion ban with those exceptions, but a state Senate defeated the bill this week.
Rounds, a Republican, told reporters at a weekly press conference that the battle isn’t over yet.
“Since nothing would have happened until next year, they don’t lose any time if they decided to come back next year,” Rounds said.
The governor said he respected the judgment of the legislature for saying that they wanted to wait to pass a revised abortion ban until more time has passed from the emotionally charged elections.
He also told the press, according to the Rapid City Journal, that waiting to approve a second abortion ban until 2008 could have advantages, such as making sure the language in the ban in as effective as possible.
“Once you put it on the ballot, you can’t change the language on the ballot,” he said.
Waiting might also give legislators more information into what the Supreme Court might do about reversing Roe v. Wade.
“At that point they might have more insight into what the Supreme Court might consider acceptable,” Rounds said.
Some pro-life legislators said they would use a parliamentary motion to get the abortion ban to the Senate floor before the end of the legislative session but so far that hasn’t happened. Unlike most sates that require a higher threshold, just one-third of the members of the Senate could vote to have a debate and vote on the Senate floor.
