South Dakota's stark abortion choice

"It's very compelling evidence," says Representative Hunt, noting that the task force also determined that life begins at conception.

He and Unruh quibble with the portrayal of the bill as having no exceptions for rape or incest, pointing to one section that guarantees women access to emergency contraception, which helps prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours after sex. But opponents of the ban say that doesn't help many women who may not immediately report a rape, and they note that South Dakota recently passed legislation allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill an emergency contraception prescription.

Of the 800 or so abortions performed in the state each year, only a few are due to rape or incest, but for many voters those are the instances they keep coming back to.

"People are saying, are you telling me if my granddaughter was raped she'd have to go to term?" says David Volk, a former state treasurer and secretary of commerce and regulation who considers himself a staunchly "pro-life" Republican. He is opposed to the ban. "It's the wrong case at the wrong time."

In addition to seeing it as too extreme, Mr. Volk objects to the money that will be needed for the state to defend the bill in court – especially since he thinks it has no chance of overturning Roe v. Wade. And many national antiabortion groups seem to agree with him. The National Right to Life Committee barely mentions the case on its Web site, and Americans United for Life, a legal support group in Chicago, says it's unlikely the Supreme Court would revisit Roe through a ban like this.

"It's going to be a very tall hill to climb for that to happen," says David McConchie, the group's executive director. "But if it's a ban of something people support, they should vote for that."

National abortion-rights groups, meanwhile, are watching the vote closely in part because they're concerned about other states – like Ohio, Louisiana, and Texas – following South Dakota and about the changing makeup of the Supreme Court.

"There's this climate that they feel [Roe] could be overturned, and that's what they're doing with the South Dakota ban," says Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. But the chilly reception the ban has gotten in a antiabortion state may be an indication that more extreme abortion opponents are overreaching, she says. "Their true agenda is now uncloaked. ... And American people are saying enough is enough."

At the state's only abortion clinic – already a five-hour drive for people in the western part of South Dakota – protesters wave signs outside on a day when a doctor has flown in. With no doctors in the state willing to perform abortions, the four doctors who work at the clinic have to fly in from Minnesota.

"Women who don't want to be pregnant will go to extreme measures," says Miriam McCreary, a semi-retired obstetrician from St. Paul explaining why she makes the trip one to three times a week. "Abortion should be safe, legal, and available as a backup if contraception fails."

But while the ban is controversial – especially in a state that, while antiabortion, also has many libertarian tendencies – not all South Dakotans struggle with it. Lawns in Sioux City are dotted with pink-and-blue "Vote Yes on 6" signs. Some voters are enthusiastic about the law. As Justin Huck and Katie Kjelden go door-to-door in a neighborhood of small houses to campaign against the ban, they get varied responses.

"You're talking to the wrong person – I very much believe in the sanctity of human life," a blond woman with two small dogs tells Mr. Huck. Judy Alvine, on the other hand, gives Ms. Kjelden a warm reception when she answers the door.

"They make it sound like if you were Christian you would be for it," she says with frustration. "We have a doctor in the family, and he feels very strongly it should be a medical thing."

"It's refreshing to have people you can actually talk with," says Kjelden, a high school sophomore volunteering for the campaign, as she leaves the house. "And she and her husband are both registered Republicans!"

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