South Dakota and Colorado to vote on abortion rights initiatives

Abortion rights initiatives make the ballot in Colorado and South Dakota

Governor Jared Polis, seated at a table, poses for a photo with others, standing

By JACK DURA

May 17, 2024 6:08 PM PT

Voters in Colorado and South Dakota will have a say on abortion rights this fall after enough signatures were collected to put measures on ballots in both states.

South Dakota voters will get a chance at direct democracy on the contentious issue in a conservative state where a trigger law banning nearly all abortions went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade.

Colorado’s measure, which made the ballot Friday, would enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution. Colorado already has broad protections for abortion, becoming a haven for those in states that have restricted abortion, particularly Texas.

South Dakota’s top election official announced Thursday that about 85% of the more than 55,000 signatures submitted in support of the ballot initiative are valid, exceeding the required 35,017 signatures.

Voters will vote up or down on prohibiting the state from regulating abortion before the end of the first trimester and allowing the state to regulate abortion after the second trimester, except when necessary to preserve the life or physical or emotional health of a pregnant woman.

Dakotans for Health, which sponsored the amendment, said in a statement Thursday that the signatures’ validation “certified that the people of South Dakota, not the politicians in Pierre, will be the ones to decide whether to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of South Dakota.”

Abortion rights are also on the ballot in Florida and Maryland, and advocates are still working toward that goal in states including Arizona, Montana and Nebraska in the aftermath of the high court’s 2022 reversal of Roe.

Voters in seven other states have already approved abortion access in ballot measures, including four that wrote abortion rights into their constitution.

Supporters of Colorado’s ballot measure said they turned in more than 225,000 signatures, nearly double the required number of just over 124,000. Amending the state constitution will require the support of 55% of voters.

“In this time of uncertainty, we need to secure abortion rights and access in the Colorado Constitution, beyond the reach of politics and politicians,” Karen Middleton, president of Cobalt Abortion Fund based in Colorado, said in a statement Friday.

South Dakota outlaws all abortions except to save the life of the pregnant woman.

Despite securing language on the ballot, abortion rights advocates in South Dakota face an uphill battle to success in November. Republican lawmakers strongly oppose the measure, and a major abortion rights advocate group has said it doesn’t support it.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota warned when the signatures were submitted that the language as written doesn’t convey the strongest legal standard for courts to evaluate abortion laws and could risk being symbolic only.

Life Defense Fund, a group organized against the initiative, said it will continue to scrutinize the signatures.

Opponents have 30 days — until June 17 — to file a challenge with the secretary of state’s office.

“We are grateful to the many dedicated volunteers who have put in countless hours, and we are resolute in our mission to defend unborn babies,” co-chairs Leslee Unruh and state Rep. Jon Hansen said in a statement.

Dura writes for the Associated Press and reported from Bismarck, N.D. AP writer Hannah Fingerhut in Oakland, N.J., contributed to this report.