FRED DE SAM LAZARO, Correspondent, Twin Cities Public Television: Messages against abortion abound across the prairies and towns of South Dakota. There are displays like these 826 crosses in a fake cemetery representing the number of abortions each year in the state.
Last March, there was a move to reduce that number to almost zero. And on November 7th, voters will be asked to weigh in.
CAMPAIGNER: Hi, how are you today? Good. My name is Mandy. I'm with the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families. I'm just going door-to-door tonight talking with folks about our state's abortion ban.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That abortion ban was approved by South Dakota lawmakers earlier this year. It would make the procedure illegal in all cases, except when pregnancy threatens a woman's life. Sponsors hoped it would be challenged legally and give a newly reconstituted Supreme Court the chance to use it to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.
State Senator Julie Bartling.
STATE SENATOR JULIE BARTLING (D), South Dakota: There is a movement across this country on the wishes to save and protect the lives of unborn children. As you know, Justice Roberts and Justice Alito were just favorably placed on that bench.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Opponents of the new law did indeed plan a legal challenge, but more immediately they petitioned successfully to put the new law on the ballot as a referendum. That means voters would have the chance to vote "yes" if they want it to stand, "no" to throw it out.
CAMPAIGNER: We've got it on the ballot. We just need "no" votes. Thank you.
SOUTH DAKOTA RESIDENT: All right. Thanks.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: According to the most recent polls, 60 percent of South Dakota voters say they oppose abortion, but support for South Dakota's new antiabortion law drops to 39 percent, many people saying they're concerned that there are no exceptions for places where the woman's health is endangered or in cases of rape or incest.
Opponents of the new law have emphasized its lack of exceptions in their campaign.
ADVERTISEMENT NARRATOR: South Dakotans agree: Honor and protect human life. Reduce the number of abortions. But should a woman who's the victim of rape or incest be left with no option? What about the mother whose health would be seriously threatened?
DR. MARIA BELL, Gynecologic Oncology: This restrictive law only allows an abortion to prevent the death of a pregnant woman, not protect her health.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Gynecologist Maria Bell says the new law makes doctors afraid they'll be prosecuted for treating pregnant women with serious illnesses if that treatment leads to an abortion. She cited one of her recent cancer cases.
DR. MARIA BELL: The first case was a 32-year-old single mother of three who presented for her first prenatal visit at 12 weeks gestation. At the time of her first prenatal visit, she was diagnosed with a large cervical cancer. Unfortunately, by giving her radiation, that would cause an abortion. What does the physician recommend? You can see that this is a dilemma that is gut-wrenching.
Exaggerated dilemma?
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But Sioux Fall's family physician Glenn Ridder, who supports the law, says that dilemma is exaggerated.
DR. GLENN RIDDER, Family Physician: We can delay the aggressive treatment, and it's done all the time. You know, Maria Bell makes it sound like it's not done at all. And then, when the baby can be delivered, then you can get as aggressive as you want.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Are you, in essence, recommending that, in cases in which a mother's health is endangered by cancer, for example, are you asking her to settle for a less-than-fully aggressive treatment for her cancer until her pregnancy goes to term?
DR. GLENN RIDDER: That is the ethical thing to do, to determine what's best for both individuals. And that is where the rubber meets the road for the physician.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Supporters of South Dakota's new law argue such cases are very rare and they say only a fraction of abortions result from medical emergencies, incest or rape. And those few women have other options, according to Leslie Unruh, who runs a center that steers women away from having abortions. Unruh leads the "Yes for Life" campaign.
LESLIE UNRUH, Anti-Abortion Activist: So many of the women that have come in here that have talked to me about making the choice of -- if you conceive the child in rape, and then they feel shamed by society that now they're supposed to have an abortion on top of that. And I just think that's wrong, and I think that women should deserve more than that.
RAPE VICTIM: I woke up the next day, and I was, like, in my aunt and uncle's bedroom. And I didn't have any of my clothes on, and I just kind of panicked. I kind of suspected that there was a date rate drug.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In this "Yes for Life" video usually shown at campaign rallies, a young woman says she chose to keep a daughter conceived through rape.
RAPE VICTIM: We went to the emergency room. They offered me the morning-after pill. They asked me if I wanted it, and I told them no.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The video notes that the rape victim had the option of emergency contraception, often called the morning-after pill, or Plan B. And even though the new law says life begins at fertilization, its supporters say that option will still be available. In other words, they argue the law doesn't have to make exceptions for rape or incest because of the availability of the morning-after pill.
LESLIE UNRUH: There's Plan B, and there is medicine -- it says right in the bill that there's -- in Section 3 of the bill -- that women can go immediately to their doctor or up to 14 days and they can seek medical care. So that's not going to change.Â
Plan B
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Opponents of the pill say Plan B is far from effective medically. It's also not widely available because of restrictive state laws. Bob Burns is a political scientist at South Dakota State University.
BOB BURNS, Professor, South Dakota State University: It's being argued this is no exception at all, in part because a number of pharmacists refuse to market it and law protects them from not marketing it. Emergency medical personnel are not obligated to counsel rape victims or incest victims of the availability of the morning-after pill. So it's not readily available.
CAMPAIGNER: I'm going to just leave this here for you, if you don't mind. It's got a lot of information that could help you in making your decision.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Polls show a pivotal 14 percent of voters are undecided. If the new law is repealed, its supporters vow to return to the legislature again. If it's upheld, opponents vow an immediate legal challenge, led by Planned Parenthood, which flies in a doctor from Minnesota each week to operate the only clinic in the entire state that offers abortions.
