Understanding Amendment G
A Vote for Our Future
Amendment G, aka the “Freedom Amendment,” proposes significant changes to South Dakota’s constitution. Before casting your vote, discover the facts and potential impacts on families, individual rights, and healthcare in communities across South Dakota.
What You Need to Know
Health and Safety Concerns
Amendment G would ban any State health and safety protections for women getting an abortion in the first trimester, putting women’s health and safety at risk. This amendment incentivizes abortion providers to perform more abortions for profit, leading to hasty procedures and increased risk for errors and complications.
Financial Motivations
Under Amendment G, abortion providers, who profit from abortions, would be considered physicians and given authority to make medical judgments for pregnant women, including minors. Abortion providers will be incentivized to perform more abortions to increase profits, regardless of the health and safety of the woman seeking care. Furthermore, this creates the potential risk of abortion providers taking advantage of minors in medical decisions.
Healthcare Worker Rights
Amendment G restricts labor protections. Healthcare workers who decline to assist in an abortion could lose their job.
South Dakota as a Test Ground
The sponsors of Amendment G admit they are using South Dakota as a testing ground for pushing abortion legislation to other states, assuming this legislation will work for every state in the country and reducing the citizens of South Dakota to test subjects. But this is not simply another piece of legislation that can be easily changed. It is a constitutional amendment, which is extremely difficult to rescind once it is in place.
Parental Rights at Risk
Amendment G prohibits the State from regulating abortions in the first trimester, including those for minors. Parents will lose their right to make informed decisions about their child’s healthcare regarding pregnancy and abortion.
Late-Term Procedures
70% of Americans believe that abortion should be limited. The broad definitions contained in Amendment G provide a loophole for abortions to be performed up to the point of birth.
Your Vote Matters
Amendment G is not just another bill – it’s a proposed change to our state constitution. Once enacted, constitutional amendments are extremely difficult to reverse. Knowing the details of Amendment G and its potential impacts is critical to making an informed vote.
Key Points to Consider
- You don’t have to be on any particular side to recognize the potential risks of this amendment.
- This amendment will affect the health, safety, and welfare of women, particularly minors.
- As written, this amendment will have unintended consequences that infringe on the rights of citizens, put the safety of minors and women at risk, and make late-term procedures possible.
Vote No If
- Like a majority of Americans, you believe abortion should be limited and are worried the amendment will lead to late-term abortions.
- You believe parents have the right to know and make informed decisions about their underage child’s healthcare when it comes to pregnancy and abortion.
- You’re concerned that overriding the State’s established safeguards puts women’s health and safety at risk.
- You believe healthcare workers should be free to live by their conscience and not risk losing their job if they decline to assist in an abortion.
What to Do Next
Many of us value individual freedom and believe the government should stay out of private matters.
Individuals should be able to make informed decisions without excessive governmental interference, especially when it comes to private medical decisions between a physician and their patient.
However, Amendment G goes too far by infringing on individual freedoms, putting the safety of minors and women at risk, and paving the way for late-term procedures.
