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Among the myriad local initiatives put before US voters Tuesday is a referendum in South Dakota on a total ban on abortion, which has put the state at the center of the national debate on the hot-button issue.
Abortion rights activists asked voters to decide whether to uphold a ban passed by the legislature and signed into law in March by the governor but not put into effect.
The law on the "protection of women's health and human life" was specifically designed to draw a legal challenge and ultimately overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 US Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.
At the time, the US high court upheld the legality of abortion based largely on defense of privacy, but abortion opponents believe the recent nomination of two conservative judges, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, might turn the tide.
"This is a perfect bill because it provides protection from the moment of implantation until birth," Troy Newmann, who leads the national anti-abortion group "Operation Rescue," said of the recent South Dakota law.
"Nobody can predict what the Supreme Court says, this is the first time a legal challenge has been mounted based on the humanity of pre-born child," Newmann said.
Surveys in local media however showed that the strategy of using the sparsely populated and conservative northern state as a springboard for a national challenge of abortion is far from certain.
As written, the law does not allow exceptions other than when the mother's life is in immediate danger.
Even if the child is conceived through incest, or rape; if the mother's health is threatened; or if the fetus has a malformation that could make it non-viable, abortion would not be a legal option.
Women's rights groups have opposed the law and organized the direct voter referendum.
If the no-vote wins, the ban will not take effect. If the yes-vote wins, the debate will head to the courts.
Even though the state population of 750,000 is generally opposed to abortion, the latest polls showed voters oppose the ban by a 10-percent margin.
"We feel a responsibility today, and have for some time, because people from across the United States have been in contact with us, telling us that it means a lot for us to be successful today, so we're working hard," said Jane Nicolay, a spokeswoman for the Campaign for Healthy Families, which was organized to oppose the ban.
But Newmann countered that abortion foes will win with the voters just as they did in the legislature.
"We'll win, the truth is on our side... You never make an exception to kill a human being, never," countered Newmann.
State statistics show South Dakota registers about 11,000 births each year and about 800 abortions, which are carried out in a single clinic by one doctor who travels in from another state.
The US high court on Wednesday was to take up the constitutionality of a 2003 law banning a form of surgical late-term abortion. The case could gauge the new judges' stand on the issue and open the way to more restrictions like South Dakota's, should it pass.
If the high court upholds the 2003 law -- the first federal restriction to abortion since 1973 -- other laws, some less strict than South Dakota's, are expected to follow.
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AFP 072124 GMT 11 06
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