RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – One house bill is in the spotlight this week with the chance of stirring up legal recourse among South Dakota abortion rights activists.

House Bill 1244 passed early Tuesday afternoon allowing people to withdraw their signature from a petition by sending a written notification to the Secretary of State’s office. Since the bill is passed… grassroots organization Dakotans for Health co-founder Rick Weiland said they will most likely be pursuing litigation to combat the vote.

The Sponsor of the bill, Representative Jon Hansen claims he has had people approach him confused because they had thought initially they were signing a pro-life petition when it was actually a pro-abortion ballot measure.

Weiland said his organization did not mislead anyone and even shared the attorney generals statement regarding video evidence of potentially illegal actions taken by Dakotans for Health petition circulators.

Weiland believes this bill is just an attempt to mute petition signers and went as far as to say he believes it’s anti-democratic.

“In a full scale effort to discourage people from signing our petition. This is a desperate act from some folks just are afraid frankly to let the people make this decision,” Weiland said.

The bill, now passed, is set to take place effective immediately if passed in the Senate hearing, but Weiland is confident Dakotans for Health has more than enough votes for their pro-choice abortion petition to go through even if some people chose to rescind their signatures.

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