The campaign to ban most abortions in South Dakota has been successful in collecting enough signatures to put the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot, the state election supervisor said Friday, setting into motion what some fear will be a divisive summer of even more campaigning, advertising and debate.

The news came a few days after members of nine women's advocacy groups called on the governor to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in the state through education and health policy, which in turn would reduce the number of abortions, one group member said. The governor has not formally responded.

But tens of thousands of others believe banning abortion is the only solution and a moral imperative, and for them, the news was reason to celebrate.

"We just feel it's important to save those who can't save themselves," said Brittany Foley of Rapid City, a spokeswoman for VoteYesforLife.com, the group that spearheaded the signature drive.

She said group members are proud they collected 46,000 signatures, with more coming in.

"The people have spoken, and it's from all over the state of South Dakota," she said.

Election supervisor Kea Warne said more than the required 16,776 petition signatures were verified by the secretary of state's office.

Volunteers for the anti-abortion group will circulate another petition this summer, collecting the names of people who pledge to vote "yes," Foley said.

She said the goal is to demonstrate continued support for the measure, called Initiated Measure 11, which would ban abortions unless deemed necessary to preserve the lives or health of women and in cases of rape or incest.

It's the second time in two years that voters will decide the fate of abortion in the state.

A more restrictive ban passed by the Legislature failed two years ago after it was referred to a popular vote. Voters rejected it 56 percent to 44 percent, and a lack of exceptions was blamed for its defeat.

Leslee Unruh, VoteYesForLife.com's executive director, said she believes voters will approve an abortion ban with exceptions. Noting the fervent feelings the issue raises, Unruh said she hoped this year's campaign is civil.

"My biggest concern is that people will try to come in and tell us what to do. I want it to be our message," she said. "I have a big problem with dead-baby pictures. That hurt us last time when people from outside the state came in and did that in Rapid City and Sioux Falls. That's not what we are. That's not what we're about."

Unruh said her group will now spend time raising money and recruiting more volunteers for the campaign.

"Now, the real work begins. Building the team to go the distance is really important," she said. "We had 1,300 people that were collecting the signatures," Unruh said.

To Anne Barlow of Rapid City, all that work collecting signatures goes against the will of the majority of the voters from the 2006 measure.

"There are a lot of people who are sorry this has come up again," said Barlow, a member of Democracy in Action and that group's representative to the South Dakota Advocacy Network for Women.

"It's a very divisive issue. It makes families go against each other and neighbors go against each other."

Barlow said the measure would not stop South Dakota women from having abortions. Those who can afford it will go out of state, she said, and she fears those who can't will seek "back alley" abortions.

Barlow said she doesn't know how people opposed to the measure will organize and get their message out.

Part of the strategy may be to appeal to libertarian views.

"They don't like government interfering with their personal lives," she said. "This is something that should be between a woman and her family and her doctor. The government should not be telling physicians how to practice medicine."

She said the way to stop abortions is to stop unintended pregnancy through health education and birth control.

Planned Parenthood also criticized the new ballot measure.

South Dakota already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws and lowest abortion rates in the nation, said Sarah Stoesz, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

"Women must overcome substantial geographic, legal and cultural obstacles to access abortion in South Dakota," she said Friday.

A Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls is the only place where abortions are routinely done in South Dakota.

No abortion can be performed in South Dakota without a 24-hour waiting period, mandatory education about the woman's options, notification of parents if the female is a minor, and an offer to view the fetal sonogram, Stoesz said.

A woman considering an abortion gives it serious thought, she said.

"Women are given information about all their options, including adoption," Stoesz said. "They reflect and consult others whom they trust before they make their decision.

"If at the end of that process a woman still believes ending a pregnancy is the right decision given her family's circumstances, the judgment of the state should not trump the judgment of a woman and her family."

Stoesz said the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, a bipartisan grass-roots coalition of farmers, teachers, ranchers, ministers and citizen activists, will work to defeat the ballot initiative.

On the Net

VoteYesForLife.com

www.sdhealthyfamilies.org

www.ppmns.org