Judge dismisses a lawsuit over South Dakota abortion-rights measure that voters rejected

A South Dakota judge dismissed a lawsuit that an anti-abortion group filed in June targeting an abortion rights measure that voters rejected this month.

In an order dated Friday, Circuit Court Judge John Pekas granted Life Defense Fund's motion to dismiss its lawsuit against Dakotans for Health, the measure group.

In a statement, Life Defense Fund co-chair Leslee Unruh said: “The people have decided, and South Dakotans overwhelmingly rejected this constitutional abortion measure. We have won in the court of public opinion, and South Dakotans clearly saw the abortion lobby’s deception.”

Dakotans for Health co-founder Rick Weiland said he had expected the lawsuit to be dismissed.

“The Life Defense Fund’s accusations were part of a broader, failed effort to keep Amendment G off the ballot and silence the voices of South Dakota voters,” Weiland said in a statement. "But make no mistake — this dismissal is just one battle in a much larger war over the future of direct democracy in South Dakota.”

Life Defense Fund's lawsuit had challenged petitions that got the measure on the ballot, saying they contained invalid signatures and circulators committed fraud and various wrongdoing. The anti-abortion group sought to invalidate the ballot initiative and bar the measure group and its workers from doing ballot-measure work for four years.

The judge initially dismissed the lawsuit in July, but the state Supreme Court sent it back to him in August. In September, an apparent misunderstanding between attorneys and the court regarding scheduling of the trial pushed the case back until after the election.

Even before the measure made the ballot in May, South Dakota's Republican-led Legislature cemented its formal opposition and passed a law allowing people to withdraw their petition signatures.

A South Dakota law that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 outlaws abortion and makes it a felony to perform one except to save the life of the mother.

South Dakota was one of three states where abortion rights measures failed this month. The others were Florida and Nebraska. Voters in six other states passed such measures.

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Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.