Life Defense Fund files lawsuit to prevent ballot question

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - A constitutional amendment is set to be on the ballot letting voters decide on restoring the rights of Roe v. Wade in South Dakota this upcoming election.

The Life Defense Fund sued to potentially prevent this question from being voted on this November.

Life Defense Fund filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging signatures needed to qualify the Freedom Amendment initiative were invalid.

Dakotans for Health submitted around 54 thousand petition signatures to Secretary of State Monae Johnson. Nearly 85 percent of those signatures were deemed valid. Johnson filed and certified the amendment May 16, which qualified it to be on the November ballot.

The lawsuit also alleged people were misled as to what they were signing. Dakotans for Health co-founder Rick Weiland said the law Life Defense Fund cited to claim their petitions should be invalid no longer exists.

“This is on the ballot and we are absolutely confident this will stay on the ballot and people, the people of South Dakota, are going to have the right to make the decision on what kind of reproductive health care, what kind of options they want, and not the politicians sitting in Pierre, South Dakota,” Weiland said.

We reached out to the Life Defense Fund for a statement and have not heard back. There has not been a court date set for the lawsuit filed Thursday.

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