SD Democratic lawmakers forgo abortion exception legislation as ballot measure brews

South Dakota Democratic lawmakers say they’re not proposing abortion-ban exceptions during this year’s legislative session due to a lack of necessary support from Republicans, but a Democratic former lawmaker hopes to put an abortion measure on the ballot again next year.

“I just don’t think there is an appetite for any pro-abortion or pro-women’s rights bills, unfortunately,” said House Minority Leader Erin Healy, D-Sioux Falls. “I think that’s really unfortunate, because we do know that the language needs to be cleaned up, but the reality is that kind of bill would not pass in this body.”

South Dakota law allows abortions only when necessary to preserve the life of the mother. The law does not define a life-threatening condition, although the state Department of Health made a Legislature-mandated video last year attempting to clarify it.

Abortion-rights measure loses in South Dakota

The ban is a trigger law passed in 2005 that went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Opponents of the ban tried to restore abortion rights with a ballot question in November, but 59% of voters rejected it. 

In some advertisements leading up to the election, anti-abortion groups said South Dakota’s laws may need to be changed — a possible reference to the lack of exceptions for a mother’s health and for instances of rape and incest — but said Amendment G was “too extreme.”

Dakotans for Health was the group that supported Amendment G. Chairman Rick Weiland issued a statement after the election calling attention to the exception allusions in the anti-Amendment G advertisements, and calling on anti-abortion lawmakers to introduce exception legislation.

“This is no small task, but it’s one they’ve committed to,” Weiland said. “Now, it’s their responsibility to keep it.”

But no such legislation has been forthcoming in the Legislature, where there are 96 Republicans and nine Democrats.

Nancy Turbak Berry is an attorney and Democratic former legislator from Watertown who campaigned for the 2024 ballot question. She and Erinn Williams, of Sioux Falls, who also campaigned for last year’s ballot question, are in the early stages of organizing a ballot measure campaign for 2026.

“The Legislature refuses to do anything about it — even those Republican legislators who are pro-choice, but refuse to admit that they are,” Turbak Berry said.

Republican lawmakers see support or opposition from anti-abortion activists as making or breaking their primary campaigns, she added.

The language of the 2026 ballot measure is still in the works, Turbak Berry said, but the goal is to create some level of access to abortion. She said the coalition is looking at measures passed in other conservative states.

The deadline for submitting signed petitions to place a constitutional amendment or initiated law on the ballot is May 5, 2026. Constitutional amendment petitions needs signatures from 35,017 registered South Dakota voters, and initiated measures need 17,508.