Life Defense Fund establishes coalition of lawyers in Amendment G fight

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - A new coalition of lawyers has joined the fight to oppose Amendment G in this year’s General Election.

We’ve been bringing you coverage about Dakotans for Health putting together a few different groups of coalitions to help bring support for Amendment G. Now, the Life Defense Fund is doing a little bit of that themselves and they put together a group of lawyers that oppose Amendment G. We spoke to one of the lawyers today who says the biggest issue with Amendment G is simply how vague it is.

Vagueness which opponents say will lead to complications.

“Those of us who are opposing as attorneys are looking at it from a legal perspective, reading through what the proposed language is and how dangerously vague it is it allows for a lot of things that take protections away from women for healthcare and children,” Elise Rasmussen, Sioux Falls lawyer said.

The Life Defense Fund continues to make strong claims about what is permissible under Amendment G.

“It takes it from Roe v. Wade all the way up to legalizing up-to-birth abortions, that means late-term abortions where children could survive outside the womb, it legalizes that, it also strips healthcare protections for women seeking those abortions, I think it’s far more extreme than Roe v. Wade,” Rasmussen said.

Amendment G Co-Founder Rick Weiland, however, WANTS to hold his ground on what Amendment G allows in the way it is currently written.

“Parental consent was a part of Roe v. Wade, the same thing you get into these health and safety standards, all these concerns about abortions up to birth, it’s all based on a bunch of falsehoods,” Weiland said.

Weiland also noted that 99% of late-term abortions occur in the first two trimesters and that a majority of those that do occur in the third trimester, occur because there is a health risk for the mother.

Back in July, Dakotans for Health established “Doctors for Freedom” in a Zoom call press conference. On the call, two OBGYNs in South Dakota noted that the state’s current abortion law, which only allows abortions when necessary to preserve the life of the mother, is a legal problem.

Both noted that it’s never clear when an abortion can be life-threatening until it’s too late and amendment G will create a much more comfortable environment for them.

With the litigation currently in play, the stakes of the ballot measure are still up in the air.

On September 23rd both sides will once again argue their case against circuit court judge John Pekas in the Minnehaha County Courthouse.