Pro-Abortion Crowd Starting the South Dakota Fight

The battle that we all knew was coming over abortion in South Dakota gets its official start today:

Abortion rights supporters planned to launch an attack on Friday on a new South Dakota abortion law designed as a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion 33 years ago.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, a Republican, signed the law, widely considered the most restrictive in the nation, about two weeks ago. The measure bans nearly all abortions, even in cases of incest and rape, and says that if a woman's life is in jeopardy, doctors must try to save the life of the fetus as well as the woman.

An abortion rights coalition, South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, said it would lay out its strategy to take down the law in mid-morning news conferences in Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

Abortion opponents have been counting on a legal challenge to the law and hope that the case could eventually take the intensely divisive issue all the way back to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Which may be the pro-abortion crowd's worst nightmare, given the recent changes to the Supreme Court. Some of those on the pro-abortion side realize that they may be playing right into their enemy's hands with a court fight, and may try another tack:

But officials with Planned Parenthood, which operates the only clinics in South Dakota that provide abortions, said a lawsuit may not be filed immediately.

Instead, abortion rights supporters may try to take the issue before South Dakota voters in November. State law allows ballot referendums seeking to overturn legislation.

"When you take things to the courts you don't have the opportunity to engage the public in the process. You don't have the ability to build a movement," said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kate Looby.

You also may get your head handed to you, and end up getting your precious Roe v. Wade overturned. Given the politics in South Dakota, I can't imagine they'll be able to drum up enough votes to throw out the law. South Dakota will probably not be the battle the pro-abortion folks want to fight.