South Dakota Pro-Choicers Fight Back

Former state Rep. Jan Nicolay, right, and current Rep. Elaine Roberts, second from right, introduce a petition drive to put South Dakota's abortion ban to the voters, Friday, March 24, 2006, in Sioux Falls, S.D. The state recently approved the strictest abortion law in the United States -- a ban on all abortions except to save a woman's life, with no exceptions for rape or incest -- and the measure is set to take effect July 1. (AP Photo/Dirk Lammers)

The battle to overturn South Dakota's anti-choice, anti-woman law has begun. A new coalition, called South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, is in the process of collecting signatures to put the nation's most extreme law on the November ballot:

"This law clearly endangers the health of women in South Dakota and violates the right of women and families to make private, personal health-care decisions," the group said.

With at least nine other states also considering strict abortion limits, the issue is expected to gain renewed national visibility in the November midterm elections, when Democrats are seeking to recapture both houses of Congress from Republicans.

The issue could energize both parties, analysts said.

"It is about South Dakota, but it ultimately is a national issue," said Ted G. Jelen, a DePaul University professor of political scientist. "This is the type of thing that might pry open some checkbooks."

The group must collect 17,000 signatures by June 19 to block the abortion ban from taking effect on July 1. The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families lists 15 co-chairs in a group that includes Republican and Democratic state legislators, medical professionals, a Methodist minister and a representative from the state's Sioux Tribe.