South Dakota and abortion (revisited 2)

Remember that notorious South Dakota abortion ban, the one that flagrantly disregards Roe, the one that may end up at the Supreme Court? (I've written about it here and here.) Well, Governor Mike Rounds approved the ban earlier this year, but, as the Argus Leader puts it, "[o]pponents circulated a petition and got enough signatures to prevent the law from taking effect until after a November vote".

And how will South Dakotans vote? Good news:

Amid the often hostile rhetoric that pierces South Dakota’s closely watched abortion debate, a new survey shows that more residents of the largely conservative state oppose a ban on the pregnancy-ending procedure than support it, though that would change if exceptions for cases involving rape and incest were allowed.

According to the statewide poll, conducted for the Argus Leader and KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, 47 percent of voters polled would vote to reject the ban, compared with 39 percent who would vote to keep it. Another 14 percent were undecided.

But not totally good news. The key poll result may be that 59 percent of South Dakotans would support a ban that "included an exception for cases involving rape or incest". Which means that if this ban fails in November a ban with exceptions (but still a broad ban) could eventually be signed into law as a more popular alternative/compromise.

And that wouldn't be good at all. (Unless a watered-down ban made it all the way to the Supreme Court and was then struck down, bolstering Roe and providing yet another precedent for abortion rights.)

Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report has more here.