US state to vote on abortion ban

KANSAS CITY - South Dakotans will vote in November on the fate of a new state law, one of the most restrictive anti-abortion measures in the United States, banning the procedure even for women made pregnant by rape or incest.

Abortion rights supporters have gathered enough signatures to let voters decide whether South Dakota should keep or reject the measure, crafted by conservative state lawmakers to give the US Supreme Court a platform for overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalised abortion.

South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson certified on Monday that the required 16,728 signatures had been gathered and the repeal initiative would appear on the ballot.

"We will encourage all South Dakotans to join us in repealing this extreme law that has embroiled our state in controversy and threatens our government with million dollar lawsuits," said Jan Nicolay, who led the petition drive for the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families.

Written to take advantage of the US high court's anticipated rightward shift after Republican President George W. Bush named his first justices, the measure would ban abortions, including of pregnancies resulting from incest or rape, and subject doctors who carry out abortions to fines of US$5000 ($8202.09) and up to five years in prison.

If a pregnant woman's life is in jeopardy, the measure mandates that doctors must try to save the foetus as well as the woman's.

Shortly after Republican Gov. Mike Rounds signed the law on March 6, abortion-rights supporters launched a petition drive to nullify its July 1 implementation and put the issue before voters in the thinly populated midwestern state in November.

If the repeal fails, opponents promised a court challenge that could ultimately reach the Supreme Court.

Similar laws banning abortion are moving forward in 14 other US states, including one in Louisiana signed on Saturday by Gov. Kathleen Blanco that would become effective if Roe v. Wade were overturned.

The Ohio House of Representatives held a hearing on a bill, which is not expected to pass, that would ban abortion even for women whose lives are endangered by pregnancy.

The US Supreme Court, widely believed to have shifted to the right after Bush appointed Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, announced on Monday it will review a 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found a federal "partial-birth" abortion ban unconstitutional.

Congress passed that ban in 2003, but Planned Parenthood challenged it in California, Nebraska and New York, where it was struck down by federal courts.

"It is unusual for the Supreme Court to hear something there is no disagreement on," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "This is where we could see the evisceration of Roe."

- REUTERS