Wire Hanger State Poised for Battle

From Kaiser:
South Dakota abortion-rights advocates on Thursday at a Planned Parenthood Federation of America-sponsored panel discussion in Washington, D.C., outlined a strategy for overturning a ban (HB 1215) that bars abortion in the state except to save a woman's life, CNS News reports. South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson (R) on Monday certified that petitioners of the state ban had submitted more than the 16,728 signatures required to place the law on hold and put it on a statewide ballot in November. The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, a coalition of opponents of the ban, last month filed the petition. Nelson needed to validate the signatures in order to suspend the law pending the outcome of the referendum. Opponents gathered more than 38,000 signatures out of 500,000 registered voters in the state. Abortion-rights advocates on Monday said they were hopeful for a successful outcome of the referendum. "We believe this is the moment for us in South Dakota," Sarah Stoesz, president of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, said, adding that the group will "pursue a legal battle if we lose, because we intend to keep our clinic." Al Quinlan, a Democratic pollster who has conducted research for PPMNS, said South Dakota is divided about the ban. He added that PPMNS plans to "make sure people know this is going to put South Dakota in the middle of a terrible, national political debate that is going to cost the state a lot of money." Leslee Unruh, president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, said, "It's too late to worry about us being in the spotlight. Our polling shows that South Dakotans will stick to their values". Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, said he thinks PPMNS has "absolutely zero" chance of defeating the ban, noting that "[e]very legislator who supported the abortion ban and was challenged won their primary and four legislators who were opposed to the abortion ban lost their primary elections".

It's a tough road ahead. But one worth fighting.
And the Leslee Gassbags will be stopped.