New S Dakota abortion ban on hold

Both sides are promising a hard-fought campaign

Opponents of a new abortion ban in the US state of South Dakota have succeeded in putting the law on hold until a state-wide ballot is held in November.

A pro-choice group has collected the 16,728 signatures needed to stop the law coming into force on 1 July.

The law bans all abortions - including in cases of rape or incest - unless the mother's life is at risk.

Its supporters hope it could help challenge the 1973 US Supreme Court decision that legalised abortions.

Test case

The controversial law is one of the toughest in the US and was signed into law by Republican Governor Mike Rounds in March.

Under it, doctors could get up to five years in prison and a $5,000 (£2,800) fine for performing an illegal abortion.

It's no slam dunk - we've got a lot of work ahead of us Jan Nicolay, S. Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families

Supporters of the law say they want to trigger a battle over the 1973 Roe-versus-Wade ruling, in which the US Supreme Court established that governments lacked the power to prohibit abortions.

Many believe two conservative appointments to the Supreme Court earlier this year may have tipped the balance in favour of anti-abortionists.

The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, a coalition of groups against the ban, say they have gathered 38,000 signatures in three months - more than twice the number required to force a ballot on the issue.

Campaigning ahead

Voters will now decide whether the law should be brought into force or rejected when the question is added to ballot papers in an election scheduled for 7 November 2006.

Gov Rounds signed the law in March 2006

Both sides are promising hard-fought campaigns.

"It's no slam dunk. We've got a lot of work ahead of us," Jan Nicolay, who led the petition drive, told the Associated Press.

"We'll give it all we've got, I can tell you that."

Leslee Unruh, one of the main promoters of the new law, said support for it was "probably the loudest cry we've heard".

"It's because there are so many women who have been harmed by abortion, myself being one of them, who have come together," she told the Associated Press.

Wider implications

If voters back the law, opponents have promised a court challenge.

It is considered likely that a federal judge would suspend the ban if it was challenged in court.

The law would therefore not take effect unless South Dakota state got the case to the US Supreme Court and won.

Several states have legislation that would automatically outlaw abortion in most cases if Rowe versus Wade were to be overturned.