Survey Shows Opponents Of South Dakota Abortion Ban Leading Proponents; Law's Advocates Focus On 'Psychological Effects' Of Abortion

About half of likely voters in South Dakota oppose a state law (HB 1215) banning abortions except to save a woman's life, while 41 percent of likely voters support the ban and 9 percent are undecided, according to a poll conducted earlier this week for KELO-TV, the AP/Kansas City Star reports (AP/Kansas City Star, 11/2). The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families successfully blocked the July 1 enactment of the law by gathering enough signatures to put the issue on the November ballot (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 11/1). The telephone survey of 600 likely voters, conducted by Research 2000, also found that 36% said they believed the ban allowed for legal abortions in cases of rape or incest, 54% said it did not allow such exceptions and 10% did not know. The poll had a margin of error of four percentage points (AP/KELO-TV, 11/2). Another recent poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research and published on Sunday in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader found that 52% of state voters would vote against the ban, 42% would vote to sustain the law and 6% were undecided. The poll had a margin of error of four percentage points (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 11/1).

Ban Advocates' Strategy
The AP/Yahoo! News on Thursday examined the campaigns of the "rival sides in South Dakota's historic vote on abortion" and how a new campaign strategy for VoteYesforLife.com, which supports the ban, has significantly changed the debate. According to the AP/Yahoo! News, VoteYesforLife.com's campaign, titled "Support Women's Health," has focused on "depicting abortion as psychologically harmful to women," rather than emphasizing a fetus's "right to live or vilifying abortion providers." VoteYesForLife.com features women in its ads who "detai[l] their post-abortion despair," the AP/Yahoo! News reports. Although there is "no comprehensive, broadly accepted U.S. study quantifying abortion's psychological impact," and recent surveys have more opposition than support for the ban among likely voters, the Campaign for Healthy Families has found VoteYesForLife.com's strategy "challenging to counter," according to the AP/Yahoo! News. "The marketing is ingenious on their part," Maria Bell, a Sioux Falls, S.D.-based ob-gyn who opposes the ban in part because she feels it harms women's health, said, adding, "'Abortion hurts women' -- that's a great slogan, but they don't have the data to back that up. They have a lot of stories, but we don't make public policies on anecdotal evidence" (Crary, AP/Yahoo! News, 11/2).

NPR's "Day to Day" on Thursday reported on campaigns supporting and opposing the ban. The segment includes comments from David Bereit, executive director of the American Life League; Don Dowland, a professor at the University of South Dakota; former state Rep. Jan Nicolay (R), spokesperson for the Campaign for Healthy Families; and Leslee Unruh, campaign manager for VoteYesForLife.com (Pesca, "Day to Day," NPR, 11/2). Audio of the segment is available online.

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