KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - South Dakota abortion rights supporters said they filed a petition on Tuesday to halt the state's new abortion ban, which became law in March as a direct challenge to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion. The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families said it had obtained more than 38,000 signatures on a petition aimed at repealing an abortion ban signed into law by Gov. Mike Rounds on March 6.
The petition was filed on Tuesday afternoon with the secretary of state's office. If at least 16,728 signatures are certified as valid, the scheduled July 1 implementation of the ban would be nullified and voters would be allowed to decide the issue in a November election.
"This law is just not feasible and is just very extreme," Dr. Maria Bell, an obstetrician who helped sponsor the petition drive, said at a news conference.
The South Dakota measure is considered one of the most restrictive in the United States. It bans nearly all abortions, even when pregnancies result from incest or rape. The law says that if a woman's life is in jeopardy, doctors must try to save the fetus as well as the woman. Doctors who carry out an abortion could be fined $5,000 and imprisoned for five years.
The effort to get the law before voters promises to make South Dakota a key battleground in the national debate. Leaders on both sides said they expect the war to win votes to be costly and aggressive, with an array of media advertising and on-the-ground campaigning expected to blitz South Dakotans during the next few months.
About 1,200 volunteers circulated copies of the petition around the state, and organizers said they had signatures from all 66 counties in South Dakota. Six hundred signatures were delivered Tuesday afternoon at the state capitol in Pierre just before the filing with the secretary of state.
"The people of South Dakota ... do not support this extreme ban," said Jan Nicolay, a former Republican state representative and co-chair of the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families. But Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, a national anti-abortion organization, said his group and others already had started campaigning to keep the abortion ban alive, holding forums and distributing literature throughout the state.
"We have been fighting for just this sort of law for 26 years," he said. "It (the repeal effort) will be soundly defeated."
The ban's supporters have said they want the law to be challenged in court so it can make its way to a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court. They hope the law will help overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a woman's right to an abortion.
Abortion rights supporters have not ruled out filing a lawsuit to block the law if they fail to overturn it in November.
