South Dakota anti-abortion group appeals ruling that dismissed its lawsuit over ballot initiative

PIERRE, S.D. — An anti-abortion group in South Dakota has appealed to the state's Supreme Court after a judge dismissed its lawsuit to take an abortion rights initiative off the November ballot.

In a statement, Life Defense Fund Co-Chair Leslee Unruh said the group has asked for an expedited order from the court “because there are absolutely no legal grounds for this dismissal.” The appeal was filed Wednesday.

“We will do everything we can to move this case as fast as possible,” she said.

The group sought to remove the initiated measure, alleging wrongdoing related to petition circulators. Measure group Dakotans for Health submitted tens of thousands of petition signatures in May. Secretary of State Monae Johnson's office later validated the initiative for the Nov. 5 general election ballot.

The measure would bar the state from regulating “a pregnant woman’s abortion decision and its effectuation” in the first trimester, but it would allow second-trimester regulations “only in ways that are reasonably related to the physical health of the pregnant woman.”

The constitutional amendment would allow the state to regulate or prohibit abortion in the third trimester, “except when abortion is necessary, in the medical judgment of the woman’s physician, to preserve the life or health of the pregnant woman.”

South Dakota outlaws abortion as a felony crime except in instances to save the life of the mother, under a trigger law that took effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

Since that decision, abortion rights measures have passed in all seven states where voters have weighed in. Similar measures will be before voters in a handful of other states this year.