Abortion opponents energized in key US state

SIOUX FALLS, S D, Oct 11: Kim Shemon crooks an elbow around her four-month-old daughter and keeps a wary eye on her four-year-old son as she puts a donation on the table and picks up a ''Vote Yes for Life'' sign for her yard.

The busy mother is part of a surge of support for South Dakota's new ban on abortion, rallying to defend the law in a referendum on November 7.

''I'm just very passionate about the right to life'' Shemon said.

''I've adopted both my kids. I'm thankful their birth mom chose life.'' Widely seen as the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, the South Dakota law has shaken abortion rights groups and emboldened their opponents, making this wind-blown farm state ground zero in the US war over abortion.

Signed by Gov. Mike Rounds on March 6, the law bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy, including cases of rape and incest, and offers no exception if a mother is in poor health.

A range of national abortion rights organisations helped conduct a successful petition over the summer to force a referendum on the law onto the ballot of US midterm elections.

But opponents of abortion still see sparsely populated South Dakota as their best route to overthrowing Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion 33 years ago.

''We're really working and we're focusing,'' said Leslee Unruh, who is leading the campaign to uphold South Dakota's ban. ''We're going to have a big party on Nov. 7. Victory is soon.'' Unruh's camp this month is holding ''bucks for babies'' fundraisers, a Rock for Life concert for college students and is distributing yard signs, T-shirts, and bumper stickers that declare ''The Killing Stops Here.'' State-wide television ads started last week and Catholic leaders have weighed in, calling for God to send ''holy angels'' to protect the abortion ban.

Across town from the Vote Yes for Life campaign, in a storefront along Sioux Falls' Main Street, supporters of abortion rights at the Campaign for Healthy Families are running an equally committed but more subdued campaign.

Unlike the high-profile anti-abortion activities, the abortion rights campaign is focusing on reaching voters door-to-door and by telephone.

It has released two television spots and stages regular press conferences, but is forgoing traditional campaign materials such as yard signs and bumper stickers in favor of house parties and speeches to business groups.

Reuters