Three states terminate anti-abortion measures

Pro-life campaigners failed to carry three ballot initiatives that banned abortion to term earlier this month after Election Day defeats in California, Colorado and South Dakota. However, the growing split in the anti-abortion movement pitting traditionalists, opposed to all abortions, and the pragmatists, that condone abortion in the event of rape or incest, possibly led to an internal meltdown. "Some of the strongest opponents of abortion may have been responsible for [the South Dakota] measure's defeat," Bob Burns, a retired educator from South Dakota State University, told a reporter from Gannet News Services about the South Dakota Right to Life organization. "They [South Dakota Right to Life] opposed the initiative because of the exceptions," Burns said of the "absolutist" group.

These exceptions in Measure 11, not included in the original, failed anti-abortion initiative from 2006, added measures permitting abortion in the event of rape or incest. Yet, it still maintained the language from 2006 that accepted abortion for the safety of the mother. In the event of rape though, the mother had to first identify the violator, determine paternity through a DNA test, and complete it within the first 20 weeks.

"They tried to twist it to make it seem like there are exceptions, but there are not exceptions," said Jan Nicolay, a former state legislator and co-chairwoman of South Dakota for Healthy Families, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Besides that, the stipulations aimed at protecting the mother's health, according to supporters of reproductive rights, are limited only to the threat of major organ failure. One scenario abortion rights supporters brought up had a pregnant mother, diagnosed with cancer, unable to seek chemotherapy or other treatment because a miscarriage would be criminal under the proposed South Dakota ban.

Proponents for reproductive rights also released a memo from attorneys, representing South Dakota's largest hospital chain, that hinted the passage of Measure 11 might "require a physician to choose between possibly committing a felony or subjecting a pregnant woman to a higher degree of medical risk than what would otherwise be clinically desirable."

With a requirement for doctors to correlate abortion with an increased suicide risk, and a mandatory 24-hour wait before an abortion can be completed, South Dakota has the most restrictive anti-abortion legislation on record. Planned Parenthood operates the state's one abortion clinic in Sioux Falls, and must fly physicians in from Minnesota because South Dakotan doctors fear they might be at risk for performing abortions.

South Dakotans rejected Measure 11 by a 10 percent margin, 55 percent to 45 percent, that mirrored the failure of their 2006 referendum on abortion. However, the defeat in South Dakota is incomparable to Colorado, as exit polling revealed more than 70 percent of Coloradans opposed a constitutional amendment giving fertilized eggs identical rights to human beings. Proposition 4, an initiative from California that has been defeated three times in four years, failed by a much closer margin of 52 percent to 48 percent in attempting to restrict abortions for underage girls.

Senior Kate Costello, a South Dakotan, believes that although her state tends to side strongly with the Republican Party, the high level of voter turnout indicated a desire for the change Barack Obama and the Democratic Party represented.

"I think many in this state will continue to support the right to life, but possibly in different ways," Costello said. "Hopefully we will see an increase in support and information concerning alternative options."

Prof. Bruce Luske, a resident sociologist at Marist, believed the "extreme" ban in South Dakota lost because of the national attention it received from abortion rights activists afraid of what its passage might do to the right of reproductive freedom.

"I think conservatism has failed, and that wedge issue has failed," Luske said. "People are no longer voting for that because they see their interest in economic and other rights as more important." Convinced the anti-abortion movement cannot regroup as easily as before, Luske doubted the debate about abortion has an immediate end.

"The last trimester is more complicated," Luske said. "In fact, even liberals, Democrats and the further left believe that abortion should be safe, legal, rare, and restricted in the last trimester.