A South Dakota judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an anti-abortion organization in June targeting an abortion rights initiative that voters recently rejected.
In a ruling dated Friday, Circuit Court Judge John Pekas approved the Life Defense Fund’s motion to dismiss its legal challenge against the group Dakotans for Health, which advocated for the initiative.

Leslee Unruh, co-chair of the Life Defense Fund, commented on the decision, stating, “The people have decided, and South Dakotans overwhelmingly rejected this constitutional abortion measure.
We have prevailed in the court of public opinion, and South Dakotans clearly recognized the misleading tactics used by the abortion lobby.”

Rick Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health, expressed that he anticipated the lawsuit’s dismissal.
He remarked, “The Life Defense Fund’s claims were part of a broader, unsuccessful attempt to prevent Amendment G from appearing on the ballot and to mute the voices of South Dakota voters.
However, this dismissal represents just a single skirmish in a much more extensive struggle over the future of direct democracy in South Dakota.”

The lawsuit from the Life Defense Fund questioned the legitimacy of the petitions that placed the measure on the ballot, alleging that they included invalid signatures and that circulators committed various acts of fraud and wrongdoing.
The group aimed to invalidate the ballot initiative and sought to prevent the measure’s supporters from engaging in ballot-related activities for a duration of four years.

Initially, the judge dismissed the lawsuit in July, but the state Supreme Court later returned it to him in August for further proceedings.
In September, a communication breakdown between the attorneys and the court concerning trial scheduling delayed the case until after the election.

Before the measure appeared on the ballot in May, South Dakota’s Republican-controlled Legislature firmly opposed it and enacted a law permitting individuals to withdraw their signatures from petitions.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, South Dakota implemented a law banning abortion and categorizing the procedure as a felony except when necessary to save a mother’s life.

This month, South Dakota was among three states where abortion rights measures did not pass, with Florida and Nebraska being the others.
In contrast, voters in six other states approved similar measures.