Fractures Within Antiabortion Movement Helped Doom Ballot Initiatives

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 10 Nov 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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The defeat of abortion ballot measures across the country -- such as South Dakota's Initiated Measure 11 to ban virtually all abortions in the state -- may have been the result of divisions among antiabortion groups, the Tennessean reports.

Opposition to the measure in South Dakota came from the antiabortion groups American Life League and South Dakota Right to Life. The groups did not support the measure because of its exceptions to the abortion ban -- cases of rape or incest or in narrowly defined instances "to preserve the health or life of the woman." Bob Burns, a retired South Dakota State University political science professor, said opposition from such groups "may have been responsible" for the ballot measure's defeat.

Voters defeated South Dakota's measure by 55% to 45%, but the state produced a win for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who opposes abortion rights. The rejection of the second attempt by abortion-rights opponents to ban abortion in a conservative, Republican-favored state should prompt antiabortion groups to end their efforts to change abortion laws through ballot initiatives, Mark Rozell -- a professor of public policy at George Mason University - said. He added, "If this measure cannot succeed in South Dakota, where else could it succeed? It's hard to imagine many other places in America where such a measure would stand a better chance."

Supporters of abortion rights also celebrated the defeat of California's Proposition 4, which would have required doctors to notify a parent of a minor at least 48 hours before providing abortion services to the minor. In Colorado, the failed Amendment 48 measure -- which would have defined a fertilized egg as a person in the state's constitution -- found opposition from Americans United For Life and National Right to Life, which questioned the timing and the approach of the measure, according to the Tennessean.

According to NARAL Pro-Choice America, voters across the country also elected 16 more House members and three more Senate members who support abortion rights, bringing the percentage of abortion-rights supporters in the House up from 38% to 42% (Bremner, Tennessean, 11/7).

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