NYT,pg1: Battle Over Abortion Focuses on South Dakota Vote

[DeepModem Mom]

Battle Over Abortion Focuses on South Dakota Vote
By MONICA DAVEY
Published: November 1, 2006

....The battle here over a statewide ballot measure to install one of the country’s strictest anti-abortion laws is playing out in television commercials, yard signs and Sunday sermons. It is also drawing the attention of national advocates on both sides of the abortion debate, who are watching the campaign with deep intensity and even fear.

Both sides predict that the outcome of the vote in South Dakota could send the country’s broader debate over abortion rights swerving in new directions, and will set the tone for the fate of similarly strict laws being considered in nearly a dozen other states....

Daniel McConchie, the vice president of Americans United for Life, which favors passage of the measure, said a defeat at the polls on Nov. 7 could take the steam out of efforts to impose even less restrictive measures, like parental notification rules or waiting periods, that have been the focus of the anti-abortion movement in recent years....

The South Dakota ban was passed by the Legislature in February but was pushed to a statewide vote by opponents. If the law survives, it would become a felony for a doctor in South Dakota to perform abortions except to prevent the death of the pregnant woman. The latest poll shows voters leaning against the ban, but its fate remains uncertain and both sides are now clearly searching to grab the last, undecided voters whose views on abortion may fall somewhere in the blurry middle....

***

Oregon and California have abortion measures on their ballots this year, both weighing parental notification laws, similar to provisions for parental notification or consent that exist in various forms in 34 states....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/us/01abort.html?ref=todayspaper