The South Dakota abortion ban lost for many reasons. We have not yet persuaded the majority of citizens that the pre-born child is indeed a human person and therefore, has an unalienable Right to LIfe that shall not be infringed. That is partly due to politicians who refuse to debate the issue (South Dakota sources say Govornor Rounds (R) and Senator Jim Thune (R) stayed neutral during the prop. 6 campaign and President Bush (R) never bothered to come and campaign for the Pro-Life side). National Right to Life did not mention a word about it on their website, and was MIA in South Dakota too. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood dumped $8 Million dollars into a campaign designed to deceive voters on the issue.
Marie Dietz offers some explanation of what is going wrong in the debate in her column, "When it Comes to Abortion, Exceptions Break the Rule". She explains the forgotten or ignored fact that the exception provided in Texas law gave amunition to Justice Blackmun and his cohorts for their reasoning in Roe vs. Wade. That is why the pro-life movement must unite in saying that there are no exceptions when it comes to protecting innocent human life. To favor laws with exceptions only undermines the cause.
The exceptions also sow the seeds of future legal defeat into any present legal success.
It is also schitzophrenic because one cannot argue that there is an “unalienable right to life” and then deny the “unalienable right to life” certain people. They are coming back in SD and they will win.