PIERRE, S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) Dakotans for Health, which sponsored the Amendment G petition drive, filed a motion Tuesday to enforce a 2023 permanent injunction that it says invalidates a lawsuit filed June 13 in Minnehaha County by the Life Defense Fund, which has actively opposed the abortion measure.
The Life Defense Fund, led by state legislator Jon Hansen and longtime anti-abortion advocate Leslee Unruh, alleged in their lawsuit that petition circulators violated a residency affidavit requirement introduced into state law in 2018. That law was later superseded by Senate Bill 180, which was enjoined in federal court in January 2023 as part of a permanent injunction. Proponents of Amendment G say that permanent injunction of 2023 makes the basis of the Life Defense Fund’s lawsuit moot.
South Dakota’s current abortion statute allows abortion only to save the life of the mother. Amendment G would liberalize South Dakota’s abortion law in the South Dakota Constitution. On May 16, South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s office certified the measure for the Nov. 5, 2024, ballot as Amendment G, saying that a random sample showed 46,098 signatures were deemed valid, well over the threshold of 35,017.
Whether the Life Defense Fund’s lawsuit has merit and whether or not Amendment G will appear on the South Dakota November 5, 2024, general election ballot is now up to the courts.